the triumph of having converted a Jewess
to Catholicism and giving the convent a festival in her baptism. They
forgave her beauty, finding themselves her superiors in education.

Esther very soon caught the manners, the accent, the carriage and
attitudes of these highly-bred girls; in short, her first nature
reasserted itself. The change was so complete that on his first visit
Herrera was astonished as it would seem--and the Mother Superior
congratulated him on his ward. Never in their existence as teachers had
these sisters met with a more charming nature, more Christian meekness,
true modesty, nor a greater eagerness to learn. When a girl has suffered
such misery as had overwhelmed this poor child, and looks forward to
such a reward as the Spaniard held out to Esther, it is hard if she does
not realize the miracles of the early Church which the Jesuits revived
in Paraguay.

"She is edifying," said the Superior, kissing her on the brow.

And this essentially Catholic word tells all.

In recreation hours Esther would question her companions, but
discreetly, as to the simplest matters in fashionable life, which to
her were like the first strange ideas of life to a child. When she heard
that she was to be dressed in white on the day of her baptism and first
Communion, that she should wear a white satin fillet, white bows, white
shoes, white gloves, and white rosettes in her hair, she melted into
tears, to the amazement of her companions. It was the reverse of the
scene of Jephtha on the mountain. The courtesan was afraid of being
understood; she ascribed this dreadful dejection to the joy with which
she looked forward to the function. As there is certainly as wide a gulf
between the habits she had given up and the habits she was acquiring as
there is between the savage state and civilization, she had the grace
and simplicity and depth which distinguished the wonderful heroine of
the American Puritans. She had too, without knowing it, a love that was
eating out her heart--a strange love, a desire more violent in her who
knew everything than it can be in a maiden who knows nothing, though the
two forms of desire have the same cause, and the same end in view.

During the first few months the novelty of a secluded life, the
surprises of learning, the handiworks she was taught, the practices
of religion, the fervency of a holy resolve, the gentle affections
she called forth, and the exercise of the faculties of her awakene