Miss Vincent's engagement met with everybody's approval, with the one exception of the marriageable young ladies of the neighbourhood, who thought that Allan Carew had made a foolish choice, and might certainly have done better for himself. What good could come of marrying a girl who was neither English nor French; who had been educated in a Parisian convent, and who drove to Salisbury every Sunday morning to hear mass? "What uncomfortable Sundays they will have!" one of these young ladies remarked to Bessie Edgefield; "and then how horrid for him to have a wife of a different creed! They are sure to quarrel about religion. Isn't the Vicar dreadfully shocked?" "My father is rather sorry that Mr. Carew should marry a Roman Catholic. There is always the fear that he might go over to Rome----" "Of course. He is sure to do that. It will be the only way to stop the quarrelling. She will make him a pervert." Mrs. Mornington, on the other hand, flattered herself that, by her marriage with a member of the English Church, her niece would be brought to see the errors of Rome, and would very soon make her appearance in the family pew beside her husband. Lady Emily cherished the same hope, since, although a less ardent Churchwoman than Mrs. Mornington, she believed in Anglicanism as the surest road to salvation, and she dwelt also upon the difficulties that might arise by-and-by about the poor dear children, talking of those potential beings as if they were already on the scene. The Roman Church was severe upon that question, and it would perhaps be impossible for Suzette to be married in her own church unless her husband would promise that their children should be baptized and educated in the true faith.