could only bring her mind with difficulty to prayer.
The dark round glass before her seemed to haunt her, and she felt as if
she were about to see all the dead wives of Bluebeard the moment she
looked into it. The tones of the organ however reassured her and she
summoned up courage to follow the directions. A screech for help
escaped her lips, the moment she looked into the glass. Immediately
before her she saw a monk in his cowl, who seemed to move, but from
under the hood she had recognised her own features, gazing pale,
spiritualized, with awe-struck eyes. A chill seized her, and now the
tones of the organ shook her to her very marrow. Long did she remain
kneeling before summoning sufficient courage to look at the horrid
image once again. Once more the same image; calm and pale sat the monk,
but from under the cowl her own features met her gaze. Again she
uttered a shriek of terror, and immediately her second-self opened its
lips. Then the glass became dim and she was obliged to wipe it with her
handkerchief. Doing this she became aware how the hand holding the
cloth appeared from under the hood. Everything was now evident, she saw
her own reflection. Indignant at the frightful spectre she drew the
linen to one side, so as to examine with a girl's curiosity the matter
thoroughly. Behind the curtain was painted a monk, whose wide cowl was
filled up by a looking-glass, so that whosoever should happen to look
in, must see his own face from under the hood. In her disgust she let
the curtain drop. The impression produced on her had not been that
intended by Paul. She did not complain at seeing her own countenance
thus ghostly disfigured, looking out in the costume of one cut off from
the world, but the Latin inscription, which contrary to Paul's
expectation, she understood, rendered her uneasy, as marking through
this monk's dress the veritable position of the Brother Paulus. The
most strange and wondrous thoughts rushed through this bewildered
child's head, and she was aroused from her darksome half terrifying,
half sensuous dreams by the sudden and abrupt ceasing of the organ, as
if death with its hard grip had straightway borne off the player. The
two other worshippers aroused themselves with a start from out of the
world of crowding thoughts, but immediately the melodious voice of the
Italian sounded through the darkened church: "I survey the entire
circumference of the earth and behold in a corner the home of Mary."