"Nay, there be few things in which they and I think alike; but this I do say: There is no chapter in her history to which the Church has better right to point with pride than this work of the Jesuits here in the West. At privations they have smiled, at danger they have laughed, at torture they have stretched out hands of blessing over their torturers. And who are they who have faced all these things for their religion? Not hardy pioneers full of love of adventure like many of our Virginia cavaliers, but delicately nurtured students, men for the chief part who prefer the cloister to the world, but have cheerfully sought these western wilds, moved only by love of God and man." "Humphrey, thou dost love to argue, but answer me one question, Dost thou put trust in them?" Huntoon shrugged his shoulders. "Why, for the matter of that," he said, "the older I grow, the fewer men do I put full trust in. But, Betty, there is something else I have to talk of with thee." "Ay," said his wife, laying down the purse she was netting, "and what is that?" "Faith, I scarce like to speak of it lest it vex thee." "The sooner I hear it, the less 'twill keep me on the rack." "Why, then, I do suspect that Romney is in love." "Verily!" "Ay, verily, verily. At the first I thought 'twas but a boyish softness; but I have watched him close of late, and I fear it is a man's passion." "Oh, mayhap 'tis thy fancy leads thee on to imagine all this. Romney is tougher than thou mayst credit. He can see a pretty face--ay, even for a year--and not lose his heart." "But, Betty--" "Well!" "What if the maid lose hers with looking at him? He is a well-favored lad." "Ay, he hath the look and bearing of the Romneys. But what hath put this fancy in thy head?" "Oh, I have looked and listened and I am very swift to take in such things, swifter than thou, I dare venture; oft would I have spoken to thee of the matter ere this, but feared to stir lest thou take it too hard." "Good Master Blind-as-a-Bat, once before I called thee by that name, and thou hast got no better eyes since. I have known this wondrous news of thine these twelve months more or less." "And never told me?" "Oft would I have spoken," answered Elizabeth, mockingly, "but feared lest thou take it too hard." "The same old Betty!" cried Humphrey Huntoon, laughing, yet a trifle vexed, for the most amiable of men loves not to be made a jest of. "But there must be some deeper reason why thou shouldst have held thy peace on a matter touching us both so nearly. Faith, thou art like the fish Walton tells of, that closeth its mouth in August and openeth not till spring."