"I am a Catholic, Doctor, and as I may be obliged to leave this place
before the lady is able to travel, I desire to see my child received
into the pale of the Church. There is, I understand, a Catholic priest
in this wretched place?"

"There is a Catholic gentleman, sir, Mr. Goodriche, who is reported to
be in orders."

"I commend your caution, Doctor," said the stranger; "it is dangerous to
be too positive on any subject. I will bring that same Mr. Goodriche to
your house to-morrow."

Gray hesitated for a moment. "I am a Presbyterian Protestant, sir," he
said, "a friend to the constitution as established in Church and State,
as I have a good right, having drawn his Majesty's pay, God bless him,
for four years, as surgeon's mate in the Cameronian regiment, as my
regimental Bible and commission can testify. But although I be bound
especially to abhor all trafficking or trinketing with Papists, yet I
will not stand in the way of a tender conscience. Sir, you may call with
Mr. Goodriche, when you please, at my house; and undoubtedly, you being,
as I suppose, the father of the child, you will arrange matters as you
please; only, I do not desire to be though an abettor or countenancer of
any part of the Popish ritual."

"Enough, sir," said the stranger haughtily, "we understand each other."

The next day he appeared at the Doctor's house with Mr. Goodriche, and
two persons understood to belong to that reverend gentleman's communion.
The party were shut up in an apartment with the infant, and it may be
presumed that the solemnity of baptism was administered to the