w that my middle-aged lover had
had other domestic relations.

"Consequently I demurred, but my father threatened and stormed, and
then, remembering my sister's fate, I pretended to agree, and I was
formally engaged.

"I never meant to keep my promise, and I began to think out schemes by
which to escape from it. Only one way seemed open to me then, and
cherishing the thought of it in secret, I waited and watched and made
preparations for carrying out my purpose.

"At length the moment came to me. It was mid-Lent, and a masked ball was
given by my fiance's friends in one of the old Roman palaces. I can see
it still--the great hall, ablaze with glowing frescoes, beautiful
Venetian candelabras, gilded furniture, red and yellow damask and
velvet, and then the throng of handsome men in many uniforms and
beautiful women with rows of pearls falling from their naked throats.

"I had dressed myself as a Bacchante in a white tunic embroidered in
gold, with bracelets on my bare arms, a tiger-skin band over my
forehead, and a cluster of grapes in my hair.

"I danced every dance, I remember, most of them with my middle-aged
lover, and I suppose no one seemed so gay and happy and heedless. At
three o'clock in the morning I returned home in my father's carriage. At
six I had entered a convent.

"Nobody in the outer world ever knew what had become of me, and neither
did I know what happened at home after I left it. The rule of the
convent was very strict. Sometimes, after morning prayers, the Superior
would say, 'The mother of one of you is dead--pray for her soul,' and
that was all we ever heard of the world outside.

"But nature is a mighty thing, my child, and after five years I became
restless and unhappy. I began to have misgivings about my vocation, but
the Mother, who was wise and human, saw what was going on in my heart.
'You are thinking about your father,' she said, 'that he is growing old,
and needing a daughter to take care of him. Go out, and nurse him, and
then come back to your cell and pray.'

"I went, but when I reached my father's house a great shock awaited me.
A strange man was in the porter's lodge, and our beautiful palace was
let out in apartments. My father was dead--three years dead and buried.
After my disappearance he had shut himself up in his shame and grief,
for, little as I had suspected it and hard and cruel as I had thought
him, he had really and truly loved me. During his last days his mind ha