Let us hear no more of this,
we pray you. Sisters, it is nearly noon. Let us take shelter until
evening!" With a reverence to the friar, the lady rose and walked
towards the house, hand in hand with Alice; the other sisters followed.
'The holy man, who had often urged the same point before, but had never
met with so direct a repulse, walked some little distance behind, with
his eyes bent upon the earth, and his lips moving AS IF in prayer. As
the sisters reached the porch, he quickened his pace, and called upon
them to stop.
'"Stay!" said the monk, raising his right hand in the air, and directing
an angry glance by turns at Alice and the eldest sister. "Stay, and
hear from me what these recollections are, which you would cherish above
eternity, and awaken--if in mercy they slumbered--by means of idle toys.
The memory of earthly things is charged, in after life, with bitter
disappointment, affliction, death; with dreary change and wasting
sorrow. The time will one day come, when a glance at those unmeaning
baubles will tear open deep wounds in the hearts of some among you, and
strike to your inmost souls.
Pages:
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129