It is in vain I tell her that true religion consists in hearing mass--in going to confession--in performing penance--in observing the fasts and vigils--in undergoing mortification and abstinence--in believing all that the holy church teaches--and hating, detesting, abhorring, and execrating----” “Enough, daughter--enough,” said Father Jose; “there can be no doubt of the orthodoxy of your creed?”--“I trust not, holy Father,” said the anxious Donna Clara. “I were an infidel to doubt it,” interposed the priest; “I might as well deny this fruit to be exquisite, or this glass of Malaga to be worthy the table of his Holiness the Pope, if he feasted all the Cardinals. But how, daughter, as touching the supposed or apprehended defalcations in Donna Isidora’s creed?”--“Holy Father, I have already explained my own religious sentiments.”--“Yes--yes--we have had enough of them; now for your daughter’s.”--“She will sometimes say,” said Donna Clara, bursting into tears--“she will say, but never till greatly urged, that religion ought to be a system whose spirit was universal love. Do you understand any thing of that, Father?”--“Humph--humph!”--“That it must be something that bound all who professed it to habits of benevolence, gentleness, and humility, under every difference of creed and of form.”--“Humph--humph!”--“Father,” said Donna Clara, a little piqued at the apparent indifference with which Father Jose listened to her communications, and resolved to rouse him by some terrific evidence of the truth of her suspicions, “Father, I have heard her dare to express a hope that the heretics in the train of the English ambassador might not be everlastingly”---- “Hush!--I must not hear such sounds, or it might be my duty to take severer notice of these lapses. However, daughter,” continued Father Jose, “thus far I will venture for your consolation. As sure as this fine peach is in my hand--another, if you please--and as sure as I shall finish this other glass of Malaga”--here a long pause attested the fulfilment of the pledge--“so sure”--and Father Jose turned the inverted glass on the table--“Madonna Isidora has--has the elements of a Christian in her, however improbable it may seem to you--I swear it to you by the habit I wear;--for the rest, a little penance--a----I shall consider of it. And now, daughter, when your son Don Fernan has finished his siesta,--as there is no reason to suspect him of retiring to _think_,--please to inform him I am ready to continue the game of chess which we commenced four months ago. I have pushed my pawn to the last square but one, and the next step gives me a queen.”--“Has the game continued so long?” said Donna Clara. “Long!” repeated the priest, “Aye, and may continue much longer--we have never played more than three hours a-day on an average.”