Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/170

 making the decision that brought me here. Yet even I, happy in my vocation, beg you to think again before you turn away from the love of a good man. Your place is in the world. Your work lies there. Will it be done less well if you have help in it?"

She stopped a moment. The girl still stared at her, surprised beyond speech. Her astonishment was vividly written in her face, and the nun smiled in perfect understanding of her thoughts.

"It seems to me," resumed Sister George, slowly, "that you are in danger of becoming a little morbid in your attitude. Because this step would mean happiness, you feel that you should put it from you. Yet why? God did not put us into the world to be miserable. Dr. Schuyler is a Catholic, and he loves the work you love. Why should you doubt that he will keep his word? He helped the poor long years before he knew you. His interest in them was for them, not recently acquired, or through any wish to please you. He seems the ideal mate for you, dear child—the one who would double your power for the comfort and relief of the poor you love to help."

"I did not suppose you would feel this way," murmured the girl. She felt, indeed, as if a rock that held her up had given way. Yet