had been prompted by affection for himself.
But the hand of God seemed to be over him, and his soul was shaken to
its foundations. From that time forward he renounced society and all
worldly pleasures. For eight days he went into retreat and prayed
fervently. On the ninth day he joined a religious house, the Novitiate
of the Capuchins at San Lorenzo. The young soldier, so gay, so handsome,
so fond of social admiration, became a friar."

The old Capuchin looked tenderly at Roma, whose wet eyes and burning
cheeks seemed to tell of sympathy with his story.

"In those days, my daughter, the nuns of Thecla served the Foundling of
Santo Spirito."

Roma began to look frightened and to feel faint.

"It was usual for a member of our house to live in the hospital in order
to baptize the children and to confess the sick and the dying. We took
it in turns to do so, staying one year, two years, three years, and then
going back to the monastery. I was myself at Santo Spirito for this
purpose at the time I speak about, and it was not until three or four
years afterwards that I became Superior of our House and returned to San
Lorenzo. There I found the young Noble Guard, and, wisely or unwisely, I
told him a new phase of his own story."

"There was a child?" said Roma, in a strange voice.

The Capuchin bent his head. "That much he knew already by the letter his
wife had left for him. She had intended that the child should die when
she died, and he supposed that it had been so. But pity for the little
one must have overtaken the poor mother at the last moment. She had put
the babe in the rota of the hospital, and thus saved the child's life
before carrying out her purpose upon her own."

The Capuchin crossed his knees, and one of his bare feet in its sandal
showed from under the edge of his habit.

"We had baptized the boy by a name which the mother had written on a
paper attached to his wrist, and the identity of that name with the name
of the Noble Guard led to my revelation. Nature is a mighty thing, and
on hearing what I told him the young brother became restless and
unhappy. The instincts of the man began to fight with the feelings of
the religious, and at last he left the friary in order to fulfil the
duty which he thought he owed to his child."

"He did not find him?"

"He was too late. According to custom, the boy had been put out to nurse
on the Campagna, by means of the little dower that was all his
inheritance fr