est Mother, it produced the same effect upon me: Yet certainly
neither of us ever heard his voice till we came to Madrid. I suspect
that what we attribute to his voice, really proceeds from his pleasant
manners, which forbid our considering him as a Stranger. I know not
why, but I feel more at my ease while conversing with him than I
usually do with people who are unknown to me. I feared not to repeat
to him all my childish thoughts; and somehow I felt confident that He
would hear my folly with indulgence. Oh! I was not deceived in him!
He listened to me with such an air of kindness and attention! He
answered me with such gentleness, such condescension! He did not call
me an Infant, and treat me with contempt, as our cross old Confessor at
the Castle used to do. I verily believe that if I had lived in Murcia
a thousand years, I never should have liked that fat old Father
Dominic!'

'I confess that Father Dominic had not the most pleasing manners in the
world; But He was honest, friendly, and well-meaning.'

'Ah! my dear Mother, those qualities are so common!'

'God grant, my Child, that Experience may not teach you to think them
rare and precious: I have found them but too much so! But tell me,
Antonia; Why is it impossible for me to have seen the Abbot before?'

'Because since the moment when He entered the Abbey, He has never been
on the outside of its walls. He told me just now, that from his
ignorance of the Streets, He had some difficulty to find the Strada di
San Iago, though so near the Abbey.'

'All this is possible, and still I may have seen him BEFORE He entered
the Abbey: In order to come out, it was rather necessary that He
should first go in.'

'Holy Virgin! As you say, that is very true.--Oh! But might He not
have been born in the Abbey?'

Elvira smiled.

'Why, not very easily.'

'Stay, Stay! Now I recollect how it was. He was put into the Abbey
quite a Child; The common People say that He fell from heaven, and was
sent as a present to the Capuchins by the Virgin.'

'That was very kind of her. And so He fell from heaven, Antonia?

He must have had a terrible tumble.'

'Many do not credit this, and I fancy, my dear Mother, that I must
number you among the Unbelievers. Indeed, as our Landlady told my
Aunt, the general idea is that his Parents, being poor and unable to
maintain him, left him just born at the Abbey door. The late Superior
from pure charity had him educated in th