rds her, frightened, "let me
tell you. I must speak."

"Yes, my child, you shall; but come and sit down first," and she drew her
to a chair and set her in it, and threw a wrap over her knees and feet;
and sat down beside her, and took one of her hands, and held it between
her own.

"Now then, Isabel, what is it?"

"I have been thinking over it all so long," began the girl, in the same
tremulous voice, with her eyes fixed on the nun's face, "and to-night in
bed I could not bear it any longer. You see, I love Hubert, and I used to
think I loved our Saviour too; but now I do not know. It seems as if He
was leading me to the Catholic Church; all is so much more plain and easy
there--it seems--it seems--to make sense in the Catholic Church; and all
the rest of us are wandering in the dark. But if I become a Catholic, you
see, I can marry Hubert then; and I cannot help thinking of that; and
wanting to marry him. But then perhaps that is the reason that I think I
see it all so plainly; just because I want to see it plainly. And what am
I to do? Why will not our Lord shew me my own heart and what is His
Will?"

Mistress Margaret shook her head gently.

"Dear child," she said, "our Saviour loves you and wishes to make you
happy. Do you not think that perhaps He is helping you and making it easy
in this way, by drawing you to His Church through Hubert. Why should not
both be His Will? that you should become a Catholic and marry Hubert as
well?"

"Yes," said Isabel, "but how can I tell?"

"There is only one thing to be done," went on the old lady, "be quite
simple and quiet. Whenever your soul begins to be disturbed and anxious,
put yourself in His Hands, and refuse to decide for yourself. It is so
easy, so easy."

"But why should I be so anxious and disturbed, if it were not our Lord
speaking and warning me?"

"In the Catholic Church," said Mistress Margaret, "we know well about all
those movements of the soul; and we call them scruples. You must resist
them, dear child, like temptations. We are told that if a soul is in
grace and desires to serve God, then whenever our Lord speaks it is to
bring sweetness with Him; and when it is the evil one, he brings
disturbance. And that is why I am sure that these questionings are not
from God. You feel stifled, is it not so, when you try to pray? and all
seems empty of God; the waves and storms are going over you. But lie
still and be content; and refuse to be disturbed; and yo