The two relatives dined privately as usual, after which Paula looked out of the window of her room, and reflected upon the events of the day.

A tower rising into the sky quite near at hand showed her that some church or other stood within a few steps of the hotel archway, and saying nothing to Mrs.Goodman, she quietly cloaked herself, and went out towards it, apparently with the view of disposing of a portion of a dull dispiriting evening.

The church was open, and on entering she found that it was only lighted by seven candles burning before the altar of a chapel on the south side, the mass of the building being in deep shade.

Motionless outlines, which resolved themselves into the forms of kneeling women, were darkly visible among the chairs, and in the triforium above the arcades there was one hitherto unnoticed radiance, dim as that of a glow-worm in the grass.

It was seemingly the effect of a solitary tallow-candle behind the masonry.
A priest came in, unlocked the door of a confessional with a click which sounded in the silence, and entered it; a woman followed, disappeared within the curtain of the same, emerging again in about five minutes, followed by the priest, who locked up his door with another loud click, like a tradesman full of business, and came down the aisle to go out.
In the lobby he spoke to another woman, who replied, 'Ah, oui, Monsieur l'Abbe!' Two women having spoken to him, there could be no harm in a third doing likewise.