“You have seen, dear Sister, how our passions sometimes get the mastery over us, and how vain are our efforts to subdue them, even though we have devoted ourselves to a religious life!” said he, in an humble tone.  “If you cannot give me your love, you can at least be silent about my feeling towards you, and forget what has just occurred, and for which I shall ask pardon from Heaven.”

Carmen looked at him, with a feeling of pity.  She had brought so much trouble to this man that the thought of it did much towards dissipating her ill-will towards him.  With tears in her eyes, she said:  “Be easy about that, Brother Jonathan.  I will not betray you.  Forget this hour, as I will try to forget it.”

Then turning away, she hurried, as fast as her feet would carry her, to the safe shelter of the Sisters’ house.

From this time forth, Carmen’s peace of mind was gone.  Her aversion to Jonathan was outweighed by her fear of him.  His hot, ardent nature had broken bounds so violently and ungovernably that she could not feel at all sure it was so quickly subdued.  A deep sense of desolation, came over her.  Her mother, lying in the grave, far away on a sea-girt island, under a tropical sun; her father, in all likelihood murdered, and buried in some foreign land; and she living among strangers, with whom she found it utterly impossible to feel any congeniality!  She avoided Brother Jonathan, and he seemed to shun her no less assiduously.  He had absented himself from one Communion; explaining his conduct by expressing an unusual sense of his own unworthiness.  His calculations were well made:  Carmen pitied him sincerely on account of the deep remorse he seemed to feel.  How could her pure mind imagine it was all hypocrisy!  In the house where he lived with the other unmarried Brothers, he maintained the same pious, serious demeanor as heretofore.  His patients received the same care and attention as formerly, but he looked haggard and care-worn, and Thomas, his faithful attendant, whom he had brought with him from the New World, would often hear him groan heavily in the night, as if some secret grief preyed on his mind.

Carmen could not witness his misery unmoved.  Since the unfortunate incident connected with him, her life among the Sisters had become doubly oppressive to her.  Like a welcome release from her unpleasant surroundings came a request from Frau von Trautenau that Sister Agatha would permit Adele and her dear Carmen to spend Whitsuntide with her at Wollmershain; an invitation which Agatha gladly accepted for her pupils.

Wollmershain was a large, beautiful estate, which, upon the death of its owner, had become the joint property of Adele and her brothers; and Frau von Trautenau had resided there since her widowhood, and proposed to continue doing so until one of her sons should buy his sister’s and brother’s portion and assume the management of it.  The relations between Frau von Trautenau and her step-son had always been of the most happy and agreeable kind; he honored and loved his step-mother, who had brought him up with the greatest possible care and affection; and she, in return placed implicit confidence in his opinions and advice, making him her chief counsellor since her husband’s death.