mean time, I am going to invite the gentlemen, who are doubtless
moping in Mr. Brown's room, as we are here, to come in and examine
that curiously illuminated missal of yours. How agreeable Mr. Brown
is, now that he is getting well! Don't you think so? And Mr. Norton is
as good and radiant as a seraph! No doubt, they are pining with
homesickness, just as you are, and will be glad of our society".

Adele left the room, and soon returned, accompanied by the two
individuals, of whom she had gone in search.

She placed Mr. Brown, who looked quite superb in his brilliantly
flowered dressing-gown, in a corner of a sofa. Having examined the
missal with interest, for a time, he handed it to Mr. Norton, and was
soon engaged in an animated conversation with Mrs. Dubois, respecting
various works of ancient art, they had both seen in Europe.

Adele watched with pleasure the light kindling in her mother's eyes,
as she went back, in memory and thought, to other days.

Mr. Norton gazed at his friend Brown, transfigured suddenly from the
despairing invalid, who had lost all interest in life, to the
animated being before him, with traces indeed of languor and disease
upon his person, but glowing now with life, thought, and emotion. "A
precious jewel gathered for the crown of Him, who sits on the throne
above", he whispered to himself.

Felicitating himself with this thought, he divided his attention
between the conversation of Mrs. Dubois and Mr. Brown, and the marvels
of skill, labor, and beauty traced by the old monk upon the pages
before him.

"I must say, Miss Adele, that these lines and colors are put on most
ingeniously. But I cannot help thinking those ancient men might have
been better employed in tracing the characters of divine truth upon
the hearts of their fellow-beings".

"True", said Adele, "had they been free to do it. But they were shut
up from the world and could not. Illuminating missals was far better
than to pass their lives in perfect idleness and inanition".

"Don't you think, my dear", said the missionary, who had wisely never
before questioned any member of the family on the points of religious
faith, "that the cloister life was a strange one to live, for men who
professed to have the love of God in their hearts, with a whole world
lying in sin around them, for a field to labor in?"

"Yes, I do, and I think too many other things are wrong about the
Roman Church, but it pains my mother to hear me speak