“Yes⁠—Abbot Gurot, a Jesuit,” said Ivan Petrovitch. “Yes, that’s the sort of thing our best men are apt to do. A man of rank, too, and rich⁠—a man who, if he had continued to serve, might have done anything; and then to throw up the service and everything else in order to go over to Roman Catholicism and turn Jesuit⁠—openly, too⁠—almost triumphantly. By Jove! it was positively a mercy that he died when he did⁠—it was indeed⁠—everyone said so at the time.”

The prince was beside himself.

“Pavlicheff?⁠—Pavlicheff turned Roman Catholic? Impossible!” he cried, in horror.