[wood] an URSULINE EPIC 49 



The great reniinciaition made, the Postulante leaves the chapel, 

 while the nuns remain in continual intercession. Presently she returns, 

 robed as a sister; and makes her vows of service. Then, like a living 

 crucifix, she prostrates herself before the Throne of G-od. There, Avhile 

 her sisters chant thanksgiving to the Mercy Seat of faith, there — 



in a long, enraptured vision — she lies^ prone, all else shut out 



She is so still so still in silent adoration you 



hardly know if she is drawing human breath. 



'At length she rises, turns toward the rest of her community, slowly 

 passes down the waiting lines, where each nun greets her with the kiss 

 of peace; and then, as they file out, she follows, last of all, never again 

 to leave the cloisters in either life or death. 



VIII. 



Who does not want to pass that massive inner door, which guards 

 the inviolate cloisters of one of the most romantic buildings in the world, 

 which has been a gate of honour for every Governor-General of French 

 or British empire, and for every Eoyal party that has set foot in 

 Canada, and which the personal command of kings and viceroys alone 

 can open? 



Visits are rare and visitors of high distinction; and the whole 

 convent is asitir to give befitting welcome. A word through the double- 

 screened wicket to the left, a word in reply from the invisible nun on 

 watchy, two sitrong turns of solid, double locks; and the door is flung 

 wide, and reveals a semi-circle of bowing and smiling Sisters. You 

 enter, and it instantly swings to; both keys turn firmly, and you stand 

 Ihere a wondering moment, with the same sense of mingled strangeness 

 and familiarity as you had when your first glimpse through a telescope 

 at night carried you off to the scene of things unrealized. 



The next minute a nun is asking if this is your first visit to Quebec, 

 and if you had a rough crossing. The Superior is a little ahead, doing 

 the honours with inimitable grace. The corridor is high and well-lighted ; 

 it looks into the sunshiny garden ; the pace is quickened^, and you move 

 on, a willing captive to the chann of such unexpected gaiety. You turn 

 a corner — what can you be coming to now — ;a ball-room? The same 

 hrou-Jia-lia of intervolving sound, and the same little puffs and gusts of 

 laughter — ^only with less forced notes, the same fleeting little icalms ! 

 You step in, just in time to catch the point of that capital story about 

 the shy visitor who got lost in the cloisters, and mistook the right door, 

 -and and here, at your very elbow, actually is a nun with whom 



Sec. II., 1908. 4. 



