shake off all evil desires, and indeed you
will find it easy. The All-Merciful will help you, and you shall be our
pride and our joy again, and a good child before God and man."

"I am not bad, dear mother; but I cannot be a minister. Do not rend my
heart so. Oh, how gladly I would obey you! but I cannot."

"Let him go to the devil, the rascal!" said his father, tearing
Christina away from her son. "Can you see your mother begging and
imploring this way?"

"Tear me to pieces," cried Ivo, "but I cannot be a minister."

"Out with you, or I'll lay hands upon your life!" cried Valentine, with
foaming mouth. He opened the door and pushed Ivo out.

"It is over," said Ivo, breathing hard as he went tottering down the
stairs. A noise was heard above: the door opened, and his mother came
down after him. Hand in hand they walked to the convent, neither of
them speaking a word. In taking leave, she said,--

"Give me your hand upon it that you'll think of it again, and that you
will not lay hands upon yourself."

Ivo gave the required promise, and went in silence to his cell. The
floor rocked under his feet; but the purpose of his soul remained
unshaken not to let thoughts of childlike affection sway him in the
choice of his vocation for life. "I have duties to myself, and must be
responsible for my own actions," thought he. "I could die to please my
mother; but to enter upon a pursuit the root of which must be the
firmest conviction that it is my appointed mission, is what I dare not
and must not do."

But in the middle of the night he suddenly awoke; and it seemed as if a
cry from his mother had roused him. He sat up in his bed; and now the
calling he was about to abjure suddenly presented itself to his mind in
its most elevated and holy aspect. He thought of being the loving,
comforting, helping friend of the poor and distressed, the father of
the orphan and the forsaken, the dispenser of light and happiness in
every heart: he lost sight of all theological dogmas, and even dreamed
of taking part in the holy strife of liberating the world from
superstition and human authority: he battled down the love of earth
within him and resolved to live for others and for the other world:
not a day would he suffer to pass without having refreshed some
heavily-laden soul or gladdened some weary heart.

"Wherever a poor child of clay shall weep in bitter sadness, I will
absorb his woes into my heart and let them fight their struggle