Page:Romance & Reality 3.pdf/218

216 and veiled, stood a dark-robed group, the nuns themselves—so still, and each individual figure so shrouded in black drapery, that it seemed more like a painting of life than life itself. Yet from them arose a strain of the most perfect music: that most exquisite of instruments—the human voice—exerted to its utmost power, and tuned to its utmost sweetness. The fathers of the Italian church well knew the people they ruled; they knew the Italian susceptibility to sight and sound; and they made music and painting the spells of their sway. All was hushed in the most profound silence when the Abbess led her proselyte to the feet of the bishop. For the last time, she was robed in all that taste could devise, or wealth procure. As if to give every possible effect to the scene, the costume of the bride of heaven always slightly differs from the reigning fashion of the day. She was now dressed in white satin, the border worked by the nuns in roses with leaves of gold; the stomacher was covered with precious stones; and a girdle like a rainbow encircled her waist: a scarf, richly embroidered with many-coloured flowers and gold, fell from her shoulders in well-arranged drapery. If the Sisters had given