Volume VI Part 69 (1/2)

The worthy Pope did not stop there He ordered a rigid scrutiny of the accounts to bethe dower He also ordered that all girls who reached the age of twenty-five without getting married should be sent aith their four hundred crowns apiece; that twelve discreet irls, and that twelve servants should be paid to do the hard work of the house

CHAPTER XVI

I Sup at the Inn With Armelline and Emilie

These innovations were the work of some six months The first refore parlour and even the interior of the convent; for as the inmates had taken no vows and were not cloistered nuns, the superior should have been at liberty to act according to her discretion Menicuccio had learnt this froht toto his sister's request, who said overness I was to ask for the governess

I was only too glad to lend ement, and felt curious to see the faces of the three recluses, as well as to hear what they had to say on these great changes

When we got into the large parlour I sao grates, one occupied by the Abbe Guasco, whom I had known in Paris in 1751, the other by a Russian nobleman, Ivan Ivanovitch Schuvaloff, and by Father Jacquier, a friar minim of the Trinita dei Monti, and a learned astronoirls

When our friends ca conversation, which had to be conducted in a low tone for fear of our being overheard

We could not talk at our ease till the other visitors had taken their leave My young friend's irl, but his sister was a ravishi+ng beauty She had just entered on her sixteenth year, but she was tall and her figure well developed; in short, she enchanted ht I had never seen a whiter skin or blacker hair and eyebrows and eyes, but stillwas the sweetness of her voice and expression, and the naive sioverness as ten or twelve years older than she as a wo expression; she was pale and , no doubt from the fires which she had been forced to quench within her She delighted ulations had caused in the house

”Thecompanions are overjoyed; but the older ones whoots are scandalized at everything The superior has already given orders for s to be h the old woo beyond the concessions she has already received To this the superior answered that as free communication had been allowed, it would be absurd to retain the darkness She has also given orders for the alteration of the double grating, as there was only a single one in the large parlour”

I thought the superior ence, and expressed a desire to see her E day

Emilie was the friend of Armelline, Menicuccio's sister This first visit lasted two hours, and seemed all too short Menicuccio spoke to his well-beloved at the other grating

I went away, after having given them ten Roman crowns as before I kissed Armelline's fair hands, and as she felt the contact of my lips her face was suffused by a vivid blush Never had the lips of man touched more dainty hands before, and she looked quite astounded at the ardour hich I kissed the the obstacles in ave reins to my passion, which seemed tofriend was in an ocean of bliss He had declared his love, and the girl had said that she would gladly becoet the cardinal's consent As this consent only depended on his ability to keep hie

He had served his time as a tailor's apprentice, and was in a position to open a shop of his own

”I envy your lot,” said I, ”for your happiness is assured, while I, though I love your sister, despair of possessing her”

”Are you married then?” he asked

”Alas, yes! Keepher every day, and if it were known that I was married, ed to tell this lie to avoid the te that I was courting her with that intention

I found the superioress a polite and clever worate to oblige me, she sometimes came for her own pleasure She knew that I was the author of the happy reform in the institution, and she told ations to irls es, and six hundred crowns had been added to the yearly income of the house

She told me that she was ill pleased with one of their confessors He was a Dominican, and made it a rule that his penitents should approach the holy table every Sunday and feast day; he kept them for hours in the confessional, and is which were likely to injure the health of young girls

”All this,” said she, ”cannot improve them from a mortal point of view, and takes up a lot of their time, so that they have none left for their work, by the sale of which they procure some small comforts for themselves

”How many confessors have you?”

”Four”