y without
understanding what her friend had meant. The good old aunt drew a
chair up to the light, put her spectacles on the end of her nose, and
opened a booklet. "Pay close attention, daughter. I'm going to begin
with the Ten Commandments. I'll go slow so that you can meditate. If
you don't hear well tell me so that I can repeat. You know that in
looking after your welfare I'm never weary."

She began to read in a monotonous and snuffling voice the
considerations of cases of sinfulness. At the end of each paragraph
she made a long pause in order to give the girl time to recall her
sins and to repent of them.

Maria Clara stared vaguely into space. After finishing the first
commandment, _to love God above all things_, Aunt Isabel looked at
her over her spectacles and was satisfied with her sad and thoughtful
mien. She coughed piously and after a long pause began to read the
second commandment. The good old woman read with unction and when she
had finished the commentaries looked again at her niece, who turned
her head slowly to the other side.

"Bah!" said Aunt Isabel to herself. "With taking His holy name in vain
the poor child has nothing to do. Let's pass on to the third." [122]

The third commandment was analyzed and commented upon. After citing
all the cases in which one can break it she again looked toward the
bed. But now she lifted up her glasses and rubbed her eyes, for she
had seen her niece raise a handkerchief to her face as if to wipe
away tears.

"Hum, ahem! The poor child once went to sleep during the sermon." Then
replacing her glasses on the end of her nose, she said, "Now let's
see if, just as you've failed to keep holy the Sabbath, you've failed
to honor your father and mother."

So she read the fourth commandment in an even slower and more snuffling
voice, thinking thus to give solemnity to the act, just as she had
seen many friars do. Aunt Isabel had never heard a Quaker preach or
she would also have trembled.

The sick girl, in the meantime, raised the handkerchief to her eyes
several times and her breathing became more noticeable.

"What a good soul!" thought the old woman. "She who is so obedient
and submissive to every one! I've committed more sins and yet I've
never been able really to cry."

She then began the fifth commandment with greater pauses and even
more pronounced snuffling, if that were possible, and with such great
enthusiasm that she did not hear the stifled sobs of her