Like Juggernaut’s car, Catholicism had passed over John’s mind, crushing all individualism, and leaving it but a wreck of quaking mysticism.  Twenty times a day the spectre of his conscience rose and with menacing finger threatened him with flames and demons.  And his love was a source of continual suffering.  How often did he ask himself if he were surrendering his true vocation?  How often did he beg of God to guide him aright?  But these mental agitations were visible to no one.  He preserved his calm exterior and the keenest eye detected in him only an ordinary young man with more than usually strict business habits.  He had appointments with his solicitor.  He consulted with him, he went into complex calculations concerning necessary repairs, and he laid plans for the more advantageous letting of the farms.

His mother encouraged him to attend to his business.  Her head was full of other matters.  A dispensation had to be obtained; it was said that the Pope was more than ever opposed to mixed marriages.  But no objection would be made to this one.  It would be madness to object....  A rich Catholic family at Henfield—­nearly four thousand a-year—­must not be allowed to become extinct.  Thornby Place was the link between the Duke of Norfolk and the So and So’s.  If those dreadful cousins came in for the property, Protestantism would again be established at Thornby Place.  And what a pity that would be; and just at a time when Catholicism was beginning to make headway in Sussex.  And if John did not marry now he would never marry; of that she was quite sure.

As may be imagined, these were not the arguments with which Mrs Norton sought to convince the Rev. William Hare; they were those with which she besieged the Brompton Oratory, Farm Street, and the Pro-Cathedral.  She played one off against the other.  The Jesuits were nettled at having lost him, but it was agreeable to learn that the Carmelites had been no less unfortunate than they.  The Oratorians on the whole thought he was not in their “line”; and as their chance of securing him was remote, they agreed that John would prove more useful to the Church as a married man than as a priest.  A few weeks later the Papal sanction was obtained.

The clause concerning the children affected Mr Hare deeply, but he was told that he must not stand in the way of the happiness of two young people.  He considered the question from many points of view, but in the meantime Mrs Norton continued to deluge Kitty with presents, and to talk to everybody of her son’s marriage.  The parson’s difficulties were thereby increased, and eventually he found he could not withhold his consent.