I had life by the throat; now it has me there--that is all." "You are not a Catholic, Monsieur ?" asked the priest, almost pleadingly, and as though the question had been much on his mind.
"No, Monsieur." The Cure made no rejoinder.

If he was not a Catholic, what matter what he was?
If he was not a Catholic, were he Buddhist, pagan, or Protestant, the position for them personally was the same.

"I am very sorry," he said gently.

"I might have helped you had you been a Catholic." The eye-glass came like lightning to the eye, and a caustic, questioning phrase was on the tongue, but Charley stopped himself in time.

For, apart from all else, this priest had been his friend in calamity, had acted with a charming sensibility.