[Footnote I:
"....The symbol shall the emblem prove Of my sad heart and eyelids wet"]
When she got thus far, she stopped and called out, cheerfully:--"Come along, my little ones; come along; come along and recite your duties!"
And in a trice they all raced in and were panting in a row about her.
Thus one sultry afternoon, Mr. Chrysler found her sitting, book and sewing on her lap and only a rosary about her neck to relieve the modest black dress, whose folds,
"Plain in their neatness,"
accorded well with her indefinably gentle bearing. Seeing him, she stopped and dropped her head, like a good convent maiden.
"Procedez, ma"amselle," he said, nodding benevolently. "Do not disturb yourself."
"But, monsieur," she said, and blushed in confusion.
"Go on. I shall be interested in these young people"s lessons."
"As monsieur wishes," she replied. "Now, my little ones, your catechism."
They ranged themselves in a line.
"Elisa, thee first; repeat the Commandments of G.o.d."
Elisa commenced a rhyming paraphrase of the Ten Commandments.
"Ah, no, cherie,--more reverence. Say it as to the Holy Virgin."
Elisa went through it in a soft manner to the end.
"Rudolphe; the Seven Commandments of the Church."
The childish accents of the little one repeated them:--
1. Ma.s.s on Sundays them shalt hear And on feasts commanded thee.
2. Once at least in every year, Must thy sins confessed be.
3. Thy Creator take at least At Easter with humility.
4. And keep holy every feast, Whereof thou shalt have decree.
5. Quatre-temps, Vigils, fasts are met, And in Lent entirely.
6. Fridays flesh thou shalt not eat; Sat.u.r.days the same shall be.
7. Church"s every t.i.the and fee Thou shalt pay her faithfully.
"Henri, what is the Church which Jesus Christ has established?"
"The Church which Jesus Christ has established," said he stoutly, "is the Church Catholic, Apostolic and Roman."
The next was Henri"s eight year old sister.
"Can anyone be saved outside of the Church Catholic, Apostolic and Roman?"
"No," (solemnly,) "out of the Church there is no salvation."
"Say now the Act of Faith all together."
"My G.o.d," said the children in unison, "I believe firmly all that the Holy Catholic Church believes and teaches, because it is you who have said it and you are Truth Itself."
"You may rest yourselves."
Chrysler was most curious regarding what he heard thus instilled. The thought struck him: "There"s something like that, in our Calvinism too."
"My dear demoiselle," he said aloud, "as I am a Protestant--"
"A Protestant, sir!" She regarded him with visibly extraordinary emotions, and involuntarily crossed herself.
"It is impossible!"
It was the first time a Protestant and she had ever been face to face.
"Monsieur," she appealed in agitation "why do you not enter the bosom of the true Church?"
"Must one not act as he believes?"
"But, sir," said the dear girl, painfully, still regarding him with great wonder, "on studying true doctrine, the saints will make you believe; the priest can baptize you. He will be delighted, I am certain, to save a soul from destruction." She could not restrain the flow of a tear.
"My child," Chrysler said, for he saw that curiosity had led him too far: "Leave this to G.o.d, who is greater than you or I and knows every heart."
"Monsieur, then, believes in G.o.d!" Her present astonishment was equal to that before.
The rising voices of the children relieved him. That of Elisa, who sat in a ring of the rest, nodding her head decidedly and rhythmically, was conspicuous:
"I am going to join the Sisterhood of the Holy Rosary and go to church early, early, often, often, four times a day, and pray, pray, and say my paters and my aves, and gain my indulgences, and be more devout than Sister Jesus of G.o.d; and then I am going to take the novitiate and wear a beautiful white veil and fast every day, and at last--at last--I am going to be a Religieuse."
"What name will you take, Elisa?"
"I have decided," the little convent girl responded, "to take the name of "Sister St. Joseph of the Cradle.""
"Mais, that is pretty, that! But I prefer "St. Mary of the Saviour.""
"What are you going to be?" Elisa asked of the smaller girl.
"I will be--I will be--I will take my first communion."
"I have taken it already," replied Elisa, with superiority.