About twenty years ago I set down for publication what I now feel I must publish. The heroine of the story has been dead some years. If there is any poignancy in what I write, it comes from my having written down the martyr’s words with scrupulous accuracy a few minutes after hearing them.

Heard May 6th, 19—, in a slum bed-sitting room, scrupulously clean.

‘It was the time when there were meetings against Catholics.’ (By this she meant the No Popery agitation of 1850.)

‘I went to some, and was very angry that they would not let Catholics speak.

‘I told the Vicar what I thought. He said : “You are half a Roman Catholic.”

‘“No,” I said, “but I like fair play. I like to hear the other side. You won’t let Catholics tell their side of the question.”

‘I read Catholic books; read them in bed—read by night. They had been saying dreadful things against the Confessional. I knew a Catholic woman. So I went to her, and said : “Would you be so kind as to let me see one of your prayer books?” She looked at me for some time. Then she said : “ I could not let you take it back with you. But if you like to look at it here, you can do so.” She took me to another room, and handed me the Prayer-book. I found the Examination of Conscience, but could not come across any of the dreadful things I had heard about it.

‘Then I said to Mrs. X—: “Your priest” (who lodged across the road) “seems to me a good man. Could I see him? I should like to convert him—”