me traces of human infirmity, she made amends by devoting
herself night and day to the spiritual and temporal welfare of the
community, who submitted to her government with extreme deference and
unquestioning obedience.

Mere Migeon had directed the two sorrowing ladies to be brought into the
garden, where she would receive them under the old tree of Mere Marie de
l'Incarnation.

She rose with affectionate eagerness as they entered, and embraced them
one after the other, kissing them on the cheek; "her little prodigals
returning to the house of their father and mother, after feeding on the
husks of vanity in the gay world which was never made for them."

"We will kill the fatted calf in honor of your return, Amelie. Will we
not, Mere Esther?" said the Lady Superior, addressing Amelie rather than
Heloise.

"Not for me, reverend Mere; you shall kill no fatted calf, real or
symbolical, for me!" exclaimed Amelie. "I come only to hide myself in
your cloister, to submit myself to your most austere discipline. I have
given up all. Oh, my Mere, I have given up all! None but God can know
what I have given up forever!"

"You were to have married the son of the Bourgeois, were you not,
Amelie?" asked the Superior, who, as the aunt of Varin, and by family
ties connected with certain leading spirits of the Grand Company, had no
liking for the Bourgeois Philibert; her feelings, too, had been wrought
upon by a recital of the sermon preached in the marketplace that
morning.

"Oh, speak not of it, good Mere! I was betrothed to Pierre Philibert,
and how am I requiting his love? I should have been his wife, but for
this dreadful deed of my brother. The Convent is all that is left to me
now."

"Your aunt called herself the humble handmaid of Mary, and the lamp of
Repentigny will burn all the brighter trimmed by a daughter of her noble
house," answered Mere Migeon.

"By two daughters, good Mere! Heloise is equally a daughter of our
house," replied Amelie, with a touch of feeling.

Mere Esther whispered a few words in the ear of the Superior, advising
her to concede every request of Amelie and Heloise, and returned to the
wicket to answer some other hasty call from the troubled city.

Messengers despatched by Bonhomme Michael followed one another at short
intervals, bringing to the Convent exact details of all that occurred
in the streets, with the welcome tidings at last that the threatened
outbreak had been averted by the prom