Holding it in one hand and carrying the much
despised shoes in the other, she left the cheerless room and started
down the long, cold hall.

When she reached the stairway leading to the floor below she stopped
abruptly. "Anita's babe!" she exclaimed half-aloud. "I have been
thinking only of myself. It is _not_ blind! It sees! It sees as God
sees! What is it that the Bible says?--'And I will bring them by a way
that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not
known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things
straight.' I must know that--always! And Padre Jose said he would
remember it, too."

Again she choked back the tears which surged up at the remembrance of
the priest, and, bracing herself, hastily descended the stairs,
murmuring at every step, "God is everywhere--right here!"

At the far end of the lower hall she saw, through an open door, a
number of elderly people sitting at long tables. Toward them she
made her way. When she reached the door, she stopped and peered
curiously within. A murmur of astonishment rose from the inmates
when they caught sight of the quaint object in the doorway, standing
uncertainly, with her shoes in one hand, the awkwardly tied bundle in
the other, and garbed in the chaotic attire so hastily procured for
her in Cartagena.

A Sister came quickly forward and, taking the girl's hand, led her
into a smaller adjoining room, where sat the Sister Superior at
breakfast. The latter greeted the child gently and bade her be seated
at the table. Carmen dropped into a chair and sat staring in naive
wonder.

"Well," began the Sister at length, "eat your breakfast quickly. This
is Sunday, you know, and Mass will be said in the chapel in half an
hour. You look frightened. I don't wonder. But you are with friends
here, little girl. What is your name?"

Carmen quickly recovered her spirits, and her nimble tongue its wonted
flexibility. Without further invitation or preface she entered at once
upon a lively description of her wonderful journey through the jungle,
the subsequent ocean voyage, and the mishap at the pier, and concluded
with the cryptical remark: "And, you know, Senora, it is all just as
Padre Jose said, only a series of states of consciousness, after
all!"

The Sister stared blankly at the beaming child. What manner of being
was this that had been so strangely wafted into these sacred precincts
on the night breeze! The abandoned woman who had brough