“My very good lady, why should you imagine that I have any wish to withdraw your daughter from her own religion? But even suppose that such an event should take place, you are not so illiberally inclined as to believe that salvation is not attainable in the Protestant church; and as it is not impossible that your daughter may be married to a Protestant, it is well that she should at least learn to regard that religion with complacency.” The mother of Clara was by no means softened by that reply, but with unabated asperity replied, “I must entreat you, my Lady Woodstock, not to speak so slightingly of religion. Would you have a woman renounce her religion for a husband?” “I think seriously,” said Lady Woodstock, “that the religion of the wife should conform to that of the husband.” “Abominable!” exclaimed Signora Rivolta. “Nay, nay, my good friend, I see nothing so very abominable in the matter. No woman ought to marry a man whose religion will be his condemnation; and the religion which may be made effectual to the salvation of the husband is equally capable of saving the wife.” “Sophistry, not worth refuting;” was the only answer which Signora Rivolta made to this last speech. The cause of this ill-humor in the mother of Clara, and of this ebullition of bigotry, was the appearance in London of an Italian priest named Martini, whom Signora Rivolta had known in Italy, and from whose fanaticism her mind had received there a strong religious impulse. This Father Martini had, on the Sunday morning in question, officiated at the chapel where Signora Rivolta attended, and his discourse had been on the subject of religious indifference; and that part of religious indifference on which priests are most eloquent, and with which they are generally most angry, is an inattention to sectarian theories or peculiarities. By the eloquence of Father Martini the zeal of Signora Rivolta had been revived, and with that zeal there also arose a feeling of hostility and bitterness towards heretics. This conversation took place just after the elopement of the Countess of Trimmerstone with Mr. Tippetson: and as after that event Horatio Markham, from circumstances already noticed, did not pay such constant attention as in former days he had paid to Clara, Signora Rivolta began to have hopes that the attachment on Markham’s part was dying away. With respect to Clara, it was evident that her mind was in a painfully unsettled state; and her mother thought that no better remedy could be applied, than removing her from those scenes and associations from whence her unhappiness arose; and as Father Martini was a man of some consideration in his own country, and a person in whom the Signora could confide, it entered into her mind that it might be desirable to send Clara back to her native land under his guardianship, till such time as in the revolution of events Colonel Rivolta and herself might be able to return to Italy.