her sleeve to
her lips and kiss it.

"Rosa looks better than she did last winter," remarked the
schoolmaster, in order to say something. It was really quite immaterial
to him if the anaemic child looked paler or not, but his own silence
terrified him. Surely the old man must notice something?

"She is certainly much better," answered Mrs. Tiralla hastily. "She
only complained of being ill for a short time. Our winters are so raw.
But now she's always well and happy, aren't you, darling? How could she
be anything but happy, she, the Holy Virgin's favourite? Tell Mr.
Boehnke what she has revealed to you in your dreams, darling," and she
nodded encouragingly to the child.

"I've not dreamt it." Rosa grew almost angry, and she flushed up to her
hair-roots. "You're not to say that I dreamt it, mother. It was really
true; I was just as wide awake as you are, and father, and Mr. Boehnke.
If you dream you surely don't see the cupboard and the clothes rack and
the washstand and the wall, and you don't hear the clock ticking and
father snoring downstairs and the wind howling in the pines outside. It
was all there as usual, and I was lying in my bed as usual. But the
room was full of a bright light. That was because the Holy Virgin was
there. She was standing in the middle of the room. She had her crown on
her head, and she wore a blue [Pg 124] mantle, which was wide and had
lots of folds, oat of which little angels were peeping."

Rosa made a pause, as though she wished to note the effect of this
wonderful communication on her hearers.

Mr. Tiralla did not say a word. He was sitting with his head buried in
his hands.

"Dear, dear!" exclaimed the schoolmaster, in order to show that he was
attending. What on earth was the child talking about? He had not been
listening very carefully.

But the woman nodded again to her daughter, who continued with
sparkling eyes.

"Rosa,' said the dear Virgin. 'Rosa Tiralla, be not afraid.' 'I'm not
afraid,' I said. Then she went on, 'I've chosen you. You are to remain
a virgin and to go to the Grey Sisters or to the Ladies of the Sacred
Heart, and there you are to pray for the conversion of sinners, for the
strengthening of the faith----'" Here Rosa broke off. "I told all this
to Father Szypulski to-day, and he explained to me what she really
meant by it. I'm to pray for the conversion of the heterodox (those who
don't believe the same as we do) and for the strengthening and
propagation