n. Often when
he joined the little assembly on the beach, he turned away his face in
secret shame and apprehension from Perrine and her father. Vainly, after
gaining the deck of the ship, did he try to meet the eye of Father Paul
as frankly, as readily, and as affectionately as others met it. The
burden of concealment seemed too heavy to be borne in the presence of
the priest--and yet, torment as it was, he still bore it! But when he
knelt with the rest of the congregation and saw Perrine kneeling by his
side--when he felt the calmness of the solemn night and the still sea
filling his heart--when the sounds of the first prayers spoke with a
dread spiritual language of their own to his soul--then the remembrance
of the confession which he had neglected, and the terror of receiving
unprepared the sacrament which he knew would be offered to him--grew too
vivid to be endured; the sense that he merited no longer, though once
worthy of it, the confidence in his perfect truth and candor placed
in him by the woman with whom he was soon to stand before the altar,
overwhelmed him with shame: the mere act of kneeling among that
congregation, the passive accomplice by his silence and secrecy, for
aught he knew to the contrary, of a crime which it was his bounden duty
to denounce, appalled him as if he had already committed sacrilege that
could never be forgiven. Tears flowed down his cheeks, though he strove
to repress them: sobs burst from him, though he tried to stifle them. He
knew that others besides Perrine were looking at him in astonishment
and alarm; but he could neither control himself, nor move to leave his
place, nor raise his eyes even--until suddenly he felt a hand laid on
his shoulder. That touch, slight as it was, ran through him instantly He
looked up, and saw Father Paul standing by his side.

Beckoning him to follow, and signing to the congregation not to suspend
their devotions, he led Gabriel out of the assembly--then paused for a
moment, reflecting--then beckoning him again, took him into the cabin of
the ship, and closed the door carefully.

"You have something on your mind," he said, simply and quietly, taking
the young man by the hand. "I may be able to relieve you, if you tell me
what it is."

As Gabriel heard these gentle words, and saw, by the light of a lamp
which burned before a cross fixed against the wall, the sad kindness of
expression with which the priest was regarding him, the oppression that
h