upstairs to penance? I can dig a grave in the corner of my little
garden and plant verbena and cypress vine over it."

She shivered as if the thought had chilled her heart, and her voice
trembled, while she pressed the stiffened forms to her, breast.

"Come along as fast as you can, dear, you are wanted in the parlour.
I believe you are going away."

"Oh! has my mother come?"

"I don't know, but I am afraid you will leave us."

"Will you be sorry, Sister Angela?"

"Very sorry, dear child, for we love our little girl too well to give
her up willingly."

Regina paused and pressed her lips to the cold white fingers that
clasped hers, but Sister Angela hurried her on till she reached a
door opening into the Mother's reception-room. Catching the child to
her heart, she kissed her twice, lifted the dead darlings from her
apron, and, pushing her gently into the small parlour, closed the
door.

It was a cool, lofty, dimly lighted room, where the glare of sunshine
never entered, and several seconds elapsed before Regina could
distinguish any object. At one end a wooden lattice work enclosed a
space about ten feet square, and here Mother Aloysius held audience
with visitors whom friendship or business brought to the convent.