wise men couldn't answer;--and then he'll cock his head, like a duck under a shower, and look out of the window, and leave me stuck dead--" There was a quiet smile around Father Letheby's mouth during this philippic. Then he said, smoothing out the paper:-- "There is a little clause here at the end, which I think, Father Dan, just affects you." "Affects me? If there is, it didn't catch my eye. Show it to me." I took the paper, and there, sure enough, was a little paragraph:-- "6° The privilege, in virtue of which parish priests of a certain standing on the mission are exempted from the obligations of the Conference, will be continued." I read that over three times to make quite sure of it, my curate looking down smilingly at me. "If _you_ are not of a certain standing, Father Dan, I'd like to know who is." "True for you," I replied musingly. "I believe I am called the Patriarch of the Conference." Visions of an old man, leaning back in his chair, whilst he was proof-protected against theological bullets, swam before me; and I began to feel like a man on a safe eminence, overlooking the battlefield, or a Spanish lady at a bullfight. "'Pon my word," I said, at length, "I'm beginning to think there is something in it, after all. The Holy Ghost has something to say to our good and holy prelates. There is no doubt there was a great waste of time at these Conferences, and young men got into idle habits and neglected their theology; and, you know, that's a serious matter. In fact, it reaches sometimes to a mortal sin. We must _all_ study now. And you see how practical the bishop is. There's Rubrics. Now, there's no doubt at all that a good many of us don't respect the ceremonies of the Mass. Go to Lisdoonvarna, and every fellow appears to have his own idea of--" [Illustration: "I read that over three times to make quite sure of it."] "Pardon me, sir," said Father Letheby, "I cannot quite follow you there. I must say I never saw the Rubrics half so well carried out in England as here at home. In fact, this complaint appears to be one of these satires on racial characteristics that are only half true, and take all their force from traditional misrepresentations." Isn't that fine language? You see, he's taking a leaf or two out of my book. "Well, but you can't deny that this question of Scriptural exegesis is one of these dominant questions that must arrest the attention of all who are interested in ecclesiastical or hieratical studies," said I, trying to keep pace with him. "Quite true," he said; "and yet I should like to see these new-fangled theories about Scriptural inspiration, plenary or otherwise, lifted from the shaking quagmires of conjecture onto the solid ground of demonstration." "You cannot deny whatever," I replied, just before giving in, "that Crolly's 'Contracts' is solid and well-reasoned and coherent argument; and look at its vast importance. It touches every question of social and civil life--"