Alvira was relieved. The kind, gentle manner of the father calmed
the storm of conflicting fears. Rejecting the inward calls of grace,
and hoping she was not discovered, she replied with some hesitation:

"But, father, I don't require to go to confession. I have not done
anything wrong."

Her voice faltered, and the blush of conscious falsehood grew deeper
and deeper on her glowing features.

Father Francis drew himself up with majesty; his eye beamed with the
glow of inspiration, and in a solemn reproof he addressed the trembling
girl:

"You have done nothing wrong, nothing to merit the judgments of a
terrible God--you, who murdered your father in the snows of the Alps,
robbed him of ill-gotten wealth, spent it in gaming, and dragged your
innocent sister in the path or your own shameless adventure!"

"Father! father!" cried Alvira, bursting into convulsive sobs.

"Maria Alvira Cassier," continued the man of God in a milder tone,
"go and change those garments; cease this tale of guilty hypocrisy.
But--"

Advancing towards her, he took her hand, and, resuming the paternal
smile that relaxed his solemn features and banished her fears, said
in a low tone: "But come with me to the Gesu."

Alvira obeyed. She was thunderstruck. The revelation of the great
secrets of her life summoned up paralyzing fears; but, accustomed
to brave the succumbing weakness of the feminine character, and
encouraged by the paternal manner of the father, she did not faint,
but buried her face in her hands and wept.

In silence she followed Father Francis. She skilfully concealed her
emotions; the tears were brushed away as rapidly as they overflowed.
In passing the squares that separated them from the church, Alvira
had resolved to unbosom herself to the good father. Like the angel
that led Peter from his prison, she knew this sainted man was destined
to lead her from the prison of her hypocrisy. Where grace has not
conquered, consequences are weighed, the future becomes too dark and
unknown for the cowardly heart, and temporal evils assume the weight
of eternal woes; the blinded self-love yields, and the moment of grace
is abandoned. But Alvira's conversion was complete, and, without one
doubt or fear for the future, she handed herself to the guidance of
the venerable father, who had learned by inspiration from heaven the
spiritual maladies of her soul.

The whole of that day was spent in the church. She crouched into an
ang