Page:Saint Theresa of Avila (Gilman 1889).djvu/40

26 Naturally his thoughts and conversation were all directed towards spiritual themes. The books he placed in his niece’s hands were the “Confessions of Saint Augustine,” the “Letters of Jerome,” and the “Morals of Gregory,”—strange reading for a lively Spanish girl of sixteen years. But Theresa was adaptable; and from the first she determined to win her lonely uncle’s affection. Day after day she sat in his library, her pretty brown eyes fastened intently on the manuscript lines of the Holy Fathers which he had given her to read. Here she read over and over again that this present life and all it contained was only vanity; and there close to her was a man she respected greatly, who was only too ready to confirm these pessimistic utterances. Don Alfonso had intended to have his daughter remain with her uncle for a short visit only; but his return was delayed, and she lingered there several weeks. What the Augustinian nuns had failed to accomplish, this quiet visit thoroughly effected, and Theresa left her uncle’s house, resolved to adopt the convent life forever. It was not contempt of a world which