Aloysius drew a quick sharp breath as of one in effort,--then he spoke again, unsteadily-- "I mean"-- he said, smiling forcedly--"I mean that you should not--you should not break the heart of--of--the poor Giulio for instance!...

it would not be kind." She lifted her eyes again and fixed them on him.
"No, it would not be kind!" she said, softly--"Dear Don Aloysius, I understand! And I will remember!" She glanced at a tiny diamond-set watch-bracelet on her wrist--"How late it is!--nearly all the morning gone! I have kept you so long listening to my talk--forgive me! I will run away now and leave you to think about my 'intervals' of happiness,--will you ?--they are so few compared to yours!" "Mine ?" he echoed amazedly.
"Yes, indeed!--yours! Your whole life is an interval of happiness between this world and the next, because you are satisfied in the service of God!" "A poor service!" he said, turning his gaze away from her elfin figure and shining hair--"Unworthy,--shameful!--marred by sin at every moment! A priest of the Church must learn to do without happiness such as ordinary life can give--and without love,--such as woman may give--but--after all--the sacrifice is little." She smiled at him, sweetly--tenderly, "Very little!" she said--"So little that it is not worth a regret! Good-bye! But not for long! Come and see me soon!" Moving across the cloister with her light step she seemed to float through the sunshine like a part of it, and as she disappeared a kind of shadow fell, though no cloud obscured the sun.

Don Aloysius watched her till she had vanished,--then turned aside into a small chapel opening out on the cloistered square--a chapel which formed part of the monastic house to which he belonged as Superior,--and there, within that still, incense-sweetened sanctuary, he knelt before the noble, pictured Head of the Man of Sorrows in silent confession and prayer..