ish to the angels and to God. And to Him it may be of
more import to comfort a little child in its trouble than to pass a
statute of Parliament. Ah, me! if God waited to comfort us till we were
wise, little comforting should any of us have. But it is written, `Like
whom his mother blandisheth, thus I will comfort you,'--and mothers do
not wait for children to be discreet before they comfort them. At
least, my mother did not."

Such a soft, sweet, tender light came into her eyes as made my heart
ache. My mother might have comforted me so.

Just then I caught Margaret's look. I do not know what it was like: but
quite different from Mother Alianora's. Something strained and
stretched, as it were, like a piece of canvas when you strain it on a
frame for tapestry-work. Then, all at once, the strain gave way and
broke up, and calm, holy peace came instead. If I might talk with
Margaret!

Mother Alianora is ill in the Infirmary. And I may not go to her.

I pleaded hard with Mother Ada to appoint me nurse for this week.

"Why?" she said in her coldest voice.

I could not answer.

"Either thou deceivest thyself, Sister," she added, "which is ill
enough, or thou wouldst fain deceive me. Knowest thou not that to
attempt to deceive thy superiors is to lie to the Holy Ghost as Ananias
and Sapphira did? How then dost thou dare to do it? I see plainly
enough what motive prompts thee: not holy obedience--that is thoroughly
inconsistent with such fervent entreaties--nor a desire to mortify thy
will, but simply a wish for the carnal indulgence of the flesh. Thou
knowest full well that particular friendships are not permitted to the
religious, it is only the lust of the flesh which prompts a fancy for
one above another: if not, every Sister would have an equal share in thy
regard. It is a carnal, worldly heart in which such thoughts dwell as
even a wish for the company of any Sister in especial. And hast thou
forgotten that the very purpose for which we were sent here was to
mortify our wills?"

I thought I was not likely to forget it, so long as nothing was allowed
me save opportunities for mortifying mine. But one more word did I dare
to utter.

"Is obedience so much better than love, Mother?"

"What hast thou to do with love, save the love of God and the blessed
Mother and the holy saints? The very word savoureth of the world. All
the love thou givest to the creature is love taken from God."

"Is love,