The penitent bowed her head yet lower. "My mother, I renounced the vows, and--we were married."
The lips of the superior moved in silent prayer.
"What was his name, my daughter?"
"Robert Lowther. We came from Ireland to London. A child was born, and we called him Paul. Then my husband"s love grew chill and died. I grieved over him. Perhaps I was but a moody companion. At last he told me--"
The voice faltered; the whole body quivered.
"Well, my child?"
"Oh, mother, he told me I was not his wife; that I was a Catholic, but that he was a Protestant; that a Catholic priest had married us in Ireland without question or inquiry. That was not a valid marriage by English law."
"Shame on the English law! But what do we know of the law at the foot of the Cross? Well?"
"He left me. Mother, I flung G.o.d"s good gift away. I tried to drown myself, and my little child with me; but they prevented me. I was placed in an asylum for the insane, and my baby--my Paul--was given into the care of a woman with whom I had lodged. Have I not sinned deeply?"
"Your sins are great, my daughter, but your sufferings have also been great. What happened then?"
"I escaped from the asylum and returned for my child. It was gone. The woman had removed to some other part of London, none knew where, and my Paul, my darling, was lost to me forever. My mother, it was then that I sinned deepest of all."
Her head was bowed to her trembling knees, and her voice was all but suspended in an agony of shame.
"Mother, I flung away G.o.d"s better gift than life! Oh, how shall I tell you? Your foot trembles, reverend mother. You are a holy woman, and know nothing of the world"s temptations."
"Hush, my daughter; I am as great a sinner as yourself."
"I cannot tell you. Mother, mother, you see I cannot."
"It is for your soul"s weal, my daughter."
"I had tried to serve G.o.d, and He had seen my shame. What was left to me but the world, the world, the world! Perhaps the world itself would have more mercy. My kind mother, have I not told you yet?"
The superior made the sign of the cross.
"Ah, my daughter! the enemy of your soul was with you then. You should not have ceased to lift your hands to Heaven in supplication and prayer.
You should have prostrated yourself three days and nights in the tribune before the Holy Sacrament."
The penitent raised her pale face.
"In less time I was a lost and abandoned woman."
The superior told a few beads with trembling fingers. Then she lifted the cross that hung from her girdle, and held it out to the sister.
"I thought of my child, and prayed that he might be dead. I thought of him who was not my husband, and my heart grew cold and hard. Mother, my redemption came. Yes, but with it came the meaning of the fearful words, too late. Amid the reeling madness of the life that is mocked with the name of gay, I met a good man. Yes, holy mother, a good man.
Mother, he now sleeps there!"
Her pale face, serene and solemn, was lifted again, and the hand that held the crucifix was raised above her head.
"I loathed my life. He took me away from it--to the mountains--to Scotland, and a child was born. Mother, it was only then that I awoke as from a trance. It seemed as if a ring of sin begirt me. Tears--ah, me!
what tears were shed. But rest and content came at last, and then we were married."
"My daughter, my daughter, little did I think when I received your vows that the enemy of your soul had so mastered you."
"Listen a little longer, holy mother. The child grew to be the image of my darling, my Paul--every feature, every glance the same. And partly to remind me of my lost one, and partly to make me forget him forever, I called the second child Paul. Mother, the years went by in peace. The past was gone from me. Only its memory lay like a waste in my silent heart. I had another son, and called him Hugh. After many years my husband died." The penitent paused.
"Mother, another thing comes back to me; but I have confessed it already. Shall I repeat it?"
"No, my daughter, not if it touches the oath that lay heavy on your heart."
"I thought my first child was dead. For thirty years I had not seen him.
But the pathways of our lives crossed at last, and the woman who nursed him came to this house four days ago."
"Here?"
"Mother, my son, the child of that first false union, my darling, for whom I wept scalding tears long, long years ago; my Paul, whose loss was all but the loss of his mother"s soul, my son is a thief and an outcast."
The lips of the superior moved again in prayer.
"He is the man known to the world as Paul Drayton--to me as Paul Lowther."
"My dear daughter, humble yourself in the midst of so awful a judgment.
Do you say Drayton?--Drayton, who, as I hear, was to-day tried and sentenced?"
"No--yes--how shall I tell you?--the same and not the same. Mother, the crime was committed by my son Paul Lowther, the sentence was p.r.o.nounced on my son Paul Ritson."
"My dear daughter--"
"I was in the court and heard all; and I alone knew all--I alone, alone!
Bear with me that I transgressed the law of this holy order. Think, oh!
my kind mother, think that the nun was yet the woman, and, above all, the mother. Yes, I heard all. I heard the charge that convicted my son Paul Lowther. He was guilty before G.o.d and man. But the prisoner in the dock was my son Paul Ritson. I knew him, and believed him when he denied the name they gave him. Ah, me, my heart bled!"
"What did you do, my daughter?"
"Mother, I was weak, very weak. I could not see my duty clearly. An awful conflict was rife within me. I could not justify the one man without condemning the other. And both were the children of my bosom."
"Fearful, fearful! But, my daughter, the one was guilty and the other innocent."
"Yes, yes; a thousand times yes; but then there was myself. How could I punish the guilty without revealing the secret sin that had been thirty years hidden in my heart? And my poor, weak spirit shrunk within me, and I sat silent amid all."
"My daughter, we must crucify our spiritual pride."
"Yes, yes; but there was the love of my son, Paul Ritson--he thought me a good woman even yet. How could I confess to that sinful past and not loose the love of the only human soul that held me pure and true?
Mother, it is very sweet to be loved."
"Oh, my daughter, my daughter, a terrible situation, terrible, terrible!"
"Mother, I have told you everything. Tell me now what hope is left. Give me your direction."