st of the sisterhood came forward,
and was introduced as Soeur Marie. Gracious Heaven! it was the poor
girl whom I had deserted. I started when I saw her advance: her eyes
were bent upon the ground, as if in reverence to my acknowledged
sanctity. As she knelt before me to receive the kiss, she raised them
up. Love can pierce through all disguises.--At the moment, she thought
that she beheld her fugitive lover, and caught her breath in amazement--
but recollection pointed out to her the utter impossibility of the fact,
and she sighed at the uncommon likeness, as she received the kiss from
those lips which had indeed been so often pressed to hers before.

When the ceremony had been gone through I complained of fatigue, and
requested to be left alone.

I wished to reflect upon what had passed, and determine how I was to
act: to escape the danger which threatened me, I had placed myself in a
situation of still greater difficulty. Where could it end? After a
long reverie, I decided that I would make Marie my _confidante_, and
trust to circumstances to guide my future conduct. I rang the bell,
and, requesting the presence of the elder sister of the convent,
commenced an inquiry into the different characters of the nuns who had
been presented.

Flattered by the confidence demanded, there was no end to the loquacity
and the ill-natured remarks of the old beldame: she held her list in her
hand, and ran over the families and private history of each. It was two
hours before she had finished, which she did with Marie, of whose
history she gave me a most minute detail; and if she was as correct in
her reports of all the others, I certainly had no reason to compliment
myself upon being abbess, so far as the previous characters of the nuns
under my surveillance were concerned. "Good sister," replied I, "I
thank you for your information, which I shall not fail to profit by in
my plans for the improvement of the morality of those under my charge.
I have always made it a rule, that one of the sisterhood should remain
in my room every night, to watch and do penance. I have found that when
coupled with my seasonable exhortations, it has produced an excellent
effect. Of course I allude not to sage and devout women like you; I
refer to those who in their folly and their flow of youthful passions,
have not yet humbled themselves sufficiently by abstinence and
mortification. Who would you propose to watch here this night?"

The