Out of prudence she recited yet another fifty and then was silent-jaded, weary, but full of happy confidence, as though the moment had brought her a promise inviolable.
The world outside was lit; wrapped in that frore splendour which the night unrolls over lands of snow when the sky is clear and the moon is shining.

Within the house was darkness, and it seemed that wood and field had illumined themselves to signal the coming of the holy hour.
"The thousand Aves have been said," murmured Maria to herself, "but I have not yet asked for anything ...

not in words." She bad thought that perhaps it were not needful; that the Divinity might understand without hearing wishes shaped by lips--Mary above all ...
Who had been a woman upon earth.

But at the last her simple mind was taken with a doubt, and she tried to find speech for the favour she was seeking.
Francois Paradis ...

Most surely it concerns Francois Paradis.
Hast Thou already guessed it, O Mary, full of grace?
How might she frame this her desire without impiety?
That he should be spared hardship in the woods ...