cted in the great dining-hall; that the Superior,
however, had ordered that they should be shown over the convent.

The two nuns led the way through the main passage. Their step was hard
and noisy, for they wore wooden shoes fastened to the feet by leather
straps over the stockings. The smaller and prettier nun, with her
delicate features pinched up in the close-fitting cap, had kept herself
timidly in the background, allowing the other to do the talking. But
now she addressed the girl in the blue muslin dress, speaking in
French. The mother gave a nod of satisfaction to the father, as much as
to say, "There, now; you see it was worth while to let the child learn
something; that was my doing, and you only reluctantly consented." The
father could not refrain from informing the nun with the big nose that
his daughter, Lina, had returned, only six months before, from the
Convent of the "Sacred Heart" at Aix-la-Chapelle. The stranger also
spoke a few words in French to the pretty nun. But now, and as often as
he addressed her, she drew herself shyly back, apparently not from
timidity, but with a nervous involuntary shrinking into herself.

The breakfast-room, school-room, and music-room, and the large
dormitories were shown to the strangers, and they admired the neatness
and good order everywhere seen. Especially in the sleeping-rooms
everything was arranged as prettily and neatly, as if not real human
beings, much less careless children, inhabited them, but as if
everything had been made ready for fairy visitants. In one little bed
only was there any disturbance. Lina drew back the curtain, and a child
with great brown eyes looked up. The young man had also come to the
bedside. "What is the matter with the child?" asked Lina. "Only
homesickness." "Only homesickness," said the stranger in a low tone to
himself, while the lady asked, "How do you cure homesickness?" "The
housekeeper has a sure method; a child complaining of homesickness is
put on the sick-list, and must stay in bed; when she is allowed to get
up, the homesickness is gone, and she feels at home." "Go away, all of
you! go away! I want Manna, I want Manna," moaned the child. "She will
come soon," said the nun, soothingly, adding in explanation, "No one
but an American girl can pacify the child." "That must be our Manna,"
said Lina to her mother. The twilight was gathering, and through the
galleries, in the golden evening light, strange forms rustled in long
gre