u," was the reply. "Neither must you know at
present; and therefore our first duty is to blindfold you."

"Pity me--have mercy upon me!" exclaimed Flora, throwing herself on her
knees before the nun who addressed her in so harsh, so stern a manner.
"I am a poor, unprotected girl: have mercy upon me!"

But the three nuns seized upon her; and while one held the palm of her
hand forcibly over her mouth so as to check her utterance, the others
hastily blindfolded her.

Flora was so overcome by this alarming proceeding, that she fainted.

When she came to her senses, she found herself lying on a hard and sorry
couch in a large apartment, almost entirely denuded of furniture and
lighted by a feebly-burning lamp suspended to the low ceiling.

For a moment she thought she was laboring under the influence of a
hideous dream; but, glancing around, she started with affright, and a
scream burst from her lips, when she beheld the three nuns standing by
the bed.

"Why have you brought me hither?" she demanded, springing from the
couch, and addressing the recluses with frantic wildness.

"To benefit you in a spiritual sense," replied the one who had before
acted as spokeswoman: "to purge your mind of those mundane vanities
which have seized upon it, and to render you worthy of salvation. Pray,
sisters--pray for this at present benighted creature!"

Then, to the surprise of the young maiden, the three nuns all fell upon
their knees around her, and began to chant a solemn hymn in most
lugubrious notes.

They had thrown aside their veils, and the flickering light of the dim
lamp gave a ghastly and unearthly appearance to their pale and severe
countenances. They were all three elderly persons: and their aspect was
of that cold, forbidding nature, which precludes hope on the part of any
one who might have to implore mercy.

The young maiden was astounded--stupefied--she knew not what to
conjecture. Where was she? who were those nuns that had treated her so
harshly? why was she brought to that cold, cheerless apartment? what
meant the hymn that seemed chanted expressly on her account?

She could not bear up against the bewilderment and alarm produced by
these questions which she asked herself, and none of which she could
solve. An oppressive sensation came over her; and she was about to sink
back upon the couch from which she had risen, when the hymn suddenly
ceased--the nuns rose from their suppliant posture--and the foremost,