, but with thee, at least, we will not use it, unless--" and her
voice and her look grew sufficiently stern for Marie to feel her words
were no idle threat--"unless obduracy and ingratitude so conquer
affection that we can see no more in the Marie Morales we have loved
than a hardened member of her own stiff-necked race; then--, but we
will not pain ourself or thee, by imagining what thine own will may
avert. Go, and the holy Virgin bless thee. Not a word; I know what
will be thine answer now; but a month hence thou wilt thank me for
this seeming severity."

And Isabella turned somewhat hastily away; for her lip quivered and
her eye swelled. Marie did not see these indications of emotion, and
silently withdrew.

CHAPTER XXXI.

"I have lost for that Faith more than thou canst bestow,
As the God who permits thee to prosper doth know.
In His hand is my heart, and my hope; and in thine
The land, and the life, which for Him I resign."

BYRON.

Marie Morales had had many trials. Her life had been one of those
painful mysteries, as to why such a being should have been thus
exposed to scorn, which while on earth we vainly try to solve. Yet it
is no imaginary picture: hundreds, aye thousands, of Israel's devoted
race have thus endured; in every age, in every clime, have been
exposed to martyrdom--not of the frame alone, but of the heart; doomed
but to suffer, and to die. And how may we reconcile these things with
the government of a loving father, save by the firm belief, which,
blessed--thrice blessed--are those who feel; that, for such sufferers
on earth, a future of blessedness is laid up in another and lovelier
world--where there is no more sorrow, no more tears!

Her former trials had been sharp agony and strong excitement. Her
present had neither the one nor the other; yet it was fraught with as
heavy suffering, as any that had gone before it; even though she knew
not, guessed not, _all_ that depended upon her conversion. It would
have been comparatively easy to have endured, for her faith's sake,
harshness and contempt; in such a case, self-respect rises to sustain
us, and we value our own tenets the more, from their startling
contrast with those which could command the cruelty we endure; but
Father Denis used harshness neither of manner nor of words. Firmly
impressed in his own mind, that it was utterly vain for a soul to hope
for salvation unless it believed in Jesus, the Virgin, the saints and