e both of them filled
with worldly objects, and He prayed without devotion. The service over,
He descended into the Garden. He bent his steps towards the same spot
where, on the preceding night, He had made this embarrassing discovery.
He doubted not but that Matilda would seek him there: He was not
deceived. She soon entered the Hermitage, and approached the Monk with
a timid air. After a few minutes during which both were silent, She
appeared as if on the point of speaking; But the Abbot, who during this
time had been summoning up all his resolution, hastily interrupted her.
Though still unconscious how extensive was its influence, He dreaded
the melodious seduction of her voice.

'Seat yourself by my side, Matilda,' said He, assuming a look of
firmness, though carefully avoiding the least mixture of severity;
'Listen to me patiently, and believe, that in what I shall say, I am
not more influenced by my own interest than by yours: Believe, that I
feel for you the warmest friendship, the truest compassion, and that
you cannot feel more grieved than I do, when I declare to you that we
must never meet again.'

'Ambrosio!' She cried, in a voice at once expressive of surprise and
sorrow.

'Be calm, my Friend! My Rosario! Still let me call you by that name
so dear to me! Our separation is unavoidable; I blush to own, how
sensibly it affects me.-- But yet it must be so. I feel myself
incapable of treating you with indifference, and that very conviction
obliges me to insist upon your departure. Matilda, you must stay here
no longer.'

'Oh! where shall I now seek for probity? Disgusted with a perfidious
world, in what happy region does Truth conceal herself? Father, I
hoped that She resided here; I thought that your bosom had been her
favourite shrine. And you too prove false? Oh God! And you too can
betray me?'

'Matilda!'

'Yes, Father, Yes! 'Tis with justice that I reproach you. Oh! where
are your promises? My Noviciate is not expired, and yet will you
compell me to quit the Monastery? Can you have the heart to drive me
from you? And have I not received your solemn oath to the contrary?'

'I will not compell you to quit the Monastery: You have received my
solemn oath to the contrary. But yet when I throw myself upon your
generosity, when I declare to you the embarrassments in which your
presence involves me, will you not release me from that oath? Reflect
upon the danger of a discovery, upon