And should they move
     Our flesh to love
     Once more the mockers, singing
     Of fruits and flowers
     In golden hours
     For mated hearts upspringing;
     We shall say:  “Our lives are given,
     Flower and fruit, to God in Heaven,
     Who shall hold them evermore.” 
     What word shall be, &c.

     O victor Love! 
     Whose might doth move
     My wearied footsteps hither,
     Here grant me days
     Of prayer and praise,
     Grant faith that ne’er shall wither;
     Love of each to either given,
     Hallowed by the grace of Heaven,
     God shall bless for evermore. 
     What word shall be, &c.

     Avaunt Earth’s weal! 
     Its bands are steel
     To souls that yearn for Heaven;
     Avaunt Earth’s pride! 
     Deep Hell shall hide
     Hearts that for fame have striven. 
     Far be lust of earthly pleasure,
     Purity, our priceless treasure,
     Christ shall grant us of His store. 
     What word shall be, &c.

     Swift be thy feet,
     My own, my sweet,
     Thine own true lover follow;
     Fear not the veil,
     The cloister’s pall
     Keeps far Earth’s spectres hollow. 
     Sinks the fire with fitful flashes,
     Soars the Phoenix from his ashes,
     Love yields Life for evermore. 
     What word shall be, &c.

     Love, that no power
     Of dreariest hour,
     Could change, no scorn, no rage,
     Now heavenly free
     From Earth shall be,
     In this, our hermitage. 
     Winged of love that upward, onward,
     Ageless, boundless, bears us sunward,
     To the heavens our souls shall soar. 
     What word shall be, &c.

On reading these verses through in a chapel where she was alone, Pauline began to weep so bitterly that all the paper was wetted with her tears.  Had it not been for her fear of showing a deeper affection than was seemly, she would certainly have withdrawn forthwith to some hermitage, and never have looked upon a living being again; but her native discretion moved her to dissemble for a little while longer.  And although she was now resolved to leave the world entirely, she feigned the very opposite, and so altered her countenance, that in company she was altogether unlike her real self.  For five or six months did she carry this secret purpose in her heart, making a greater show of mirth than had ever been her wont.

But one day she went with her mistress to the Observance to hear high mass, and when the priest, the deacon and the sub-deacon came out of the vestry to go to the high altar, she saw her hapless lover, who had not yet fulfilled his year of novitiate, acting as acolyte, carrying the two vessels covered with a silken cloth, and walking first with his eyes upon the ground.  When Pauline saw him in such raiment as did rather