worthless precious in their eyes; whereas they once referred everything to their own desires, they now referred all to God and His will.  Their impulses were the same as of old, but they kept them within bounds by a never-sleeping consciousness that they led, not to joys, but to everlasting punishment.  These regenerate souls learned to contemn the world, and instead of gazing down at the dust their eyes were fixed upwards on Heaven.  If either of them tottered, his whole ‘new man’ prompted him to recover his balance before he fell to the ground.—­But Orion!  Your lover?  His guilt seems to have passed over him; he hopes for reunion with God from a more meritorious life in the world.  Not only is his nature unaltered, but his attitude with regard to life and to the joys it offers to the children of this world.  Earthly love is spurring him on to strive for what is noble and great and he earnestly seeks to attain it; but he will fall over every stone that the devil casts in his path, and find it hard to pick himself up again, for misfortune has not led him to the new birth or the new life in God.  Just such men have I seen, numbers of times, relapsing into the sins they had escaped from.  Before we can entirely trust a man who has once—­though but once-wandered so far from God’s ways, while Grace has not yet worked effectually in him, we shall do well to watch his dealings and course for more than a few short days.  If you still feel that you must follow the dictates of your heart, at any rate do not fly into your lover’s open arms, do not abandon to him the pure sanctuary of your body and soul, do not be wholly his till he has been fully put to the proof.”

“But I believe in him entirely!” cried Paula, with a flood of tears.

“You believe because you love him,” replied the abbess.

“And because he deserves it.”

“And how long has he deserved it?”

“Was he not a splendid man before his fall?”

“And so was many a murderer.  Most criminals become outcasts from society in a single moment.”

“But society still accepts Orion.”

“Because he is the son of the Mukaukas.”

“And because he wins all hearts !”

“Even that of the Almighty?”

“Oh!  Mother, Mother! why do you measure him by the standard of your own sanctified soul?  How few are the elect who find a share of the grace of which you speak!”

“But those who have sinned like him must strive for it.”

“And he does so, Mother, in his way.”

“It is the wrong way; wrong for those who have sinned as he has.  All he strives for is worldly happiness.”

“No, no.  He is firm in his faith in God and the Saviour.  He is not a liar.”

“And yet he thinks he may escape the penalty?”

“And does not the Lord pardon true repentance?—­He has repented; and how bitterly, how fearfully he has suffered!”

“Say rather that he has felt the stripes that his own sin brought upon him.—­There are more to come; and how will he take them?  Temptation lurks in every path, and how will he avoid it?  As your mother, indeed it is my duty to warn you:  Keep your passion and yourself still under control; continue to watch him, and grant him nothing—­not the smallest favor, as you are a maiden, before he. . .”