lation of a painting which had just
been finished by the nun who shared her cell. The figure of the Holy
Virgin seemed to stand out from the dark background; her large eyes were
sadly fixed on the heads bent in devotion; the flickering flame seemed
to cast light and shadow alternately on the divine features. It seemed
sometimes to Helene that the sorrowful eyes of the Mother of God glowed
with a misty light. Helene was not praying. Rapt in a self-forgetful
reverie, her soul soared higher than the arches of the church; she had
not heard the broken voice of the old priest, which sounded like a sob,
any more than she heard the beatings of her own heart; she took no
account of the flight of time till she felt a hand touch her arm.

"Are you going to stay there till morning?" a little misshapen old woman
asked her with a discontented air.

"It is a real sin in you younger ones to stay so, absent-minded, without
even making the sign of the cross. See! the wax-tapers have burnt out.
You have been thinking long enough in your self-conceit, 'Here I am
alone, and all the others have gone.'"

"Pardon, Sister Seraphine," murmured the nun.

"Very well! God will pardon you. Go now, I am closing the church. But
make the sign of the cross; that will not break your arm, and then an
obeisance. God be with you. All the same, it is a sin in you young ones.
Ah, if they would only give us another abbess."

Helene turned once more to look at the church-screen.

The church was now plunged in silence and darkness; the old nun hobbled
before the altar, then disappeared behind the columns. Here and there
were visible the little flames of the lamps which are never put out. A
bunch of keys fell on the flag-stones, sounding like the clash of
chains. Sister Seraphine had dropped them.

Once more she watched the young nun's figure as it vanished in the
darkness.

"One of the intellectuals!" grumbled the old woman.

"Are we not then all equal before God, those who know as well as those
who are ignorant. To speak seven languages, is to multiply one's sins
sevenfold. Jesus did not seek for His apostles among the learned, but
among fishermen. It is better then to be ignorant. If we had another
Superior, Mother Anempodista for instance, she would not have hesitated
to give you her blessing and send you to wash the dishes or knead the
dough. We are one community; service and trouble, all ought to be
shared. It is not French that the Apostle Peter