incredible to her, that the God who in less favoured times, and under
a severer dispensation, had so often suspended the laws of nature, in
order to support, to guide, and to instruct His people; that the Saviour
who had turned water into wine by a single word, and withered the
unprofitable fig-tree by a look,--should at all times display the same
power in favour of His children, in ways not a whit more marvellous or
mysterious.

Cecilia made one more effort to check what she considered exaggeration
in the mode of life of her daughters-in-law. She urged their husbands to
interfere, and by their authority to oblige them to mix more with the
world. But Paluzzo and Lorenzo had too deep an esteem for their wives,
and too great a sense of the advantages they derived from their singular
virtues, to be persuaded into putting a restraint on their actions.
Since they had come into the family, and united their pious efforts for
their own and others' spiritual improvement, disputes and quarrels had
given way to the most edifying concord. The servants, moved by their
example, performed their duties with exemplary zeal, frequented the
churches and the sacraments, and abstained from profane or idle words.
They accordingly entreated their mother to give up her fruitless
attempts, and allow the two young women liberty to follow the rule of
life they had adopted; and thus put an end to the kindly meant but
trying persecution they had gone through.

About this time the devil, thwarted in his designs, but always on
the watch, was permitted to vent his anger against Francesca and her
sister-in-law in a way to which he often had recourse, and which, while
it seemed to display a momentary power over their bodies, only proved
in the end that a stronger one than he was always at hand to defeat his
malice, and snatch from him his prize. Francesca and Vannozza had gone