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Rh offer up a portion of her time, as her holiest sacrifice; and on the straw pallet, and in the serge robe, take a profound lesson of the vanities which made up ordinary existence. To these vanities, it is true, they returned; but surely not without a stronger humility, and some thoughts which even in the world, were God's own.

Madame de Mercœur was at first unwilling that Francesca should share her seclusion; but her young companion was too much in earnest to be refused. Francesca was still depressed by her recent parting with Guido, and clung to Henriette as her only friend,—she would have felt so utterly alone with Marie; besides, she too wished to pray for the absent and the dear.

It was a gloomy evening when they arrived. A small, drizzling rain, chill and damp, seemed to relax the fibres of the body, even as it did their hair, which fell over the face heavy and uncomfortable. The wind howled with a sudden gust, as the gates of the convent swung on their sullen hinges, and sounded almost like a human voice in its agony or in its despair, as it swept through the vaulted corridors.

They were conducted first into the presence of the abbess—a harsh, severe-looking woman, stately and reserved—one who seemed never to