r. But when she
went to the Cathedral, and, for the first time saw and heard Francis
for herself, it was like a revelation straight from God.

It seemed to Clara that he spoke directly to her, and that he knew all
her secret sorrows, and personal anxieties! Oh how she longed to have
some part in his great work! In those days such a thing as a girl
leaving her home for any reason except to be married or immured in a
convent, and never seen, was unheard of, and when Clara made up her
mind that she would break away from her idle luxurious life and become
a servant of the poor, she knew that she was going to do an unheard of
thing, and that never while the world stood, would she get permission
from her father, Favorina, for any such undertaking! Clare's mother,
Ortolana, was a pious woman, but even if she were to give her
consent, it was quite certain her husband would not. Therefore Clara
determined not to tell her mother what she was thinking about doing.

[Sidenote: _Clara's Decision._]

During the year that ensued after that preaching in the Cathedral,
Clara saw a great deal of Francis, and the more she saw of him, and
heard him talk, the surer she became that God was calling her to leave
home and friends. So one March night, accompanied by two servants,
Clara left her beautiful home, and set off for the Portiuncula, where
Francis and the brothers were waiting to receive her, and welcome her
as a sister in the Lord. Singing hymns, they led her into the little
church, and after a short service, during which they read her the
Rules, her beautiful long hair was cut off, and she robed herself in a
garment of coarse, ash-colored stuff, tied in at the waist with a
rope. After this she was conducted to a convent, some two miles away,
where the Benedictine nuns gave her a temporary shelter.

Francis was too simple and unworldly to think of the possible
consequences of this step of Clara's. He was sure that God had called
her, and he was equally sure that her friends would never give their
consent to her leaving home and becoming an apostle of poverty;
therefore, as God had revealed His will, it must be done at once. It
also never occurred to him that this was likely to develop into a
second Order of his Brotherhood, and an extension of his work. He only
saw a soul anxious to leave the world and all that pertained to it,
for Christ's sake, and his only thought was to provide it a way of
escape, just as he would have cared fo