tholic marrying a
person of another religion must not enter into any agreement whereby any
of her children should be brought up in any other than the Catholic
faith.

After that, and something said to my father which I cannot recall, he
gave me his blessing, in words so beautiful and a voice so sweet that it
fell on me like the soft breeze that comes out of the rising sun on a
summer morning.

"May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob be with
you, my daughter. May your marriage be a yoke of love and peace, and may
you see your children's children to the third and fourth generation."

Then he raised me to my feet, and at a touch from the Chamberlain, I
backed out of the room.

When the door had closed on me I drew a deep breath, feeling as if I had
come out of the Holy of Holies, and when I reached the Piazza of St.
Peter's and came again upon the sight and sound of common things--the
cabs and electric cars--it was the same as if I had suddenly descended
from heaven to earth.

After my audience with the Pope, following on the Reverend Mother's
story, all my objections to marriage had gone, and I wished to tell my
father so, but an opportunity did not arise until late the same night
and then it was he who was the first to speak.

Being in good spirits, after a dinner to the ecclesiastics, he said, as
soon as his guests had gone--speaking in the tone of one who believed he
was doing a great thing for me--

"Mary, matters are not quite settled yet, but you might as well know
right here what we're trying to fix up for you."

Then he told me.

I was to marry the young Lord Raa!

I was stunned. It was just as if the power of thought had been smitten
out of me.

TWENTY-SECOND CHAPTER

That night, and during the greater part of the following day, I felt,
without quite knowing why, as if I were living under the dark cloud of a
gathering thunderstorm. All my fear of the world, and my desire to
escape from it, had fallen upon me afresh. Hence it was not altogether
by the blind leading of fate that half an hour before Ave Maria I
entered the church of the Convent which the Reverend Mother had given me
the name of.

The church was empty when I pushed past the leather hanging that covered
the door, but the sacristan was lighting the candles for Benediction, so
I went up to the bronze screen, the Cancello, that divides the public
part from the part occupied by the Sisters, and knelt on th