eave
for him to give you absolution. I'll move heaven and earth, but you
_shall_ have the sacraments, poor children!--and see him. I've been a
wild fellow in my youth, and never pretended to sanctity; but I know
there's but one safe way--and--and--keep you each a bit of this--(he
opened a small silver box)--about you while you stay here--fold and sew
it up reverently in a bit of the old psaltery parchment and wear it next
your hearts--'tis a fragment of the consecrated wafer--and will help,
with the saints' protection, to guard you from harm--and be strict in
fasts, and constant in prayer--_I_ can do nothing--nor devise any help.
The curse has fallen, indeed, on me and mine."

And Alice, saw, in silence, the tears of despair roll down his pale and
agitated face.

This adventure was also a secret, and Una was to hear nothing of it.

CHAPTER VI

Voices

Now Una, nobody knew why, began to lose spirit, and to grow pale. Her
fun and frolic were quite gone! Even her songs ceased. She was silent
with her sister, and loved solitude better. She said she was well, and
quite happy, and could in no wise be got to account for the lamentable
change that had stolen over her. She had grown odd too, and obstinate in
trifles; and strangely reserved and cold.

Alice was very unhappy in consequence. What was the cause of this
estrangement--had she offended her, and how? But Una had never before
borne resentment for an hour. What could have altered her entire nature
so? Could it be the shadow and chill of coming insanity?

Once or twice, when her sister urged her with tears and entreaties to
disclose the secret of her changed spirits and demeanour, she seemed to
listen with a sort of silent wonder and suspicion, and then she looked
for a moment full upon her, and seemed on the very point of revealing
all. But the earnest dilated gaze stole downward to the floor, and
subsided into an odd wily smile, and she began to whisper to herself,
and the smile and the whisper were both a mystery to Alice.

She and Alice slept in the same bedroom--a chamber in a projecting
tower--which on their arrival, when poor Una was so merry, they had hung
round with old tapestry, and decorated fantastically according to their
skill and frolic. One night, as they went to bed, Una said, as if
speaking to herself----

"'Tis my last night in this room--I shall sleep no more with Alice."

"And what has poor Alice done, Una, to deserve your strange unk