for some sick man to be carried to the convent.

I found my aunt in the hall, whither she scarce ever was carried down
before noon-day; and instead of her every-day garb--a loose morning-gown-
--she was apparelled in strange and shapeless raiment, so muffled in
kerchiefs and cloaks as to seem no whit like any living woman, much less
herself, insomuch that her small thin person was like nothing else than a
huge, shapeless, many-coated onion. Her little face peeped out of the
veils and kerchiefs that wrapped her head, like a half-moon out of thick
clouds; but her bright eyes shone kindly on me as she cried: "Come, haste
to your breakfast, lie-a-bed! I thought to find you fitted and ready,
and you are keeping the men waiting as though it were an every-day matter
that we should travel together."

"Aye, aye! She is bent on the journey," my uncle said with a groan, as
he cast a loving glance at his frail wife and raised his folded hands to
Heaven. "Well, chaplain, miracles happen even in our days!" And his
Reverence, silent as he was, this time had an answer ready, saying with
hearty feeling: "The loving heart of a brave woman has at all times been
able to work miracles."

"Amen," said my uncle, pressing his lips on the top of his wife's muffled
head.

Howbeit I remembered our talk yesternight, and the sleigh I had seen
being harnessed; indeed, the look alone which the unwonted traveller cast
on me was enough to tell me what my sickly aunt purposed to do for the
sake of Ann. Then something came upon me, I know not what; with a
passion all unlike that of yesterdayeve, I fell on my knees and kissed
her as a child whose mother has made it a Christmas gift of what it most