Fabiola : or, The church of the catacombs - Digital Repository Services

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;
'
led, and wo
it would be a waste of both timo and eapi-
'
>f jesting earnest, and
: )ra.;uuire fell so provoked both at tho trutli and i
of his words, i
;;raci
>i.l not thank him, perhaps, quite so
-us!v as *ho niicvh' otherwise have done. Tho reserve did
to afflict him, however; he patted IVrlelta on
hand, and, in reply to lier little
uttered in Italian, but made quite intelli-
d manner, he 01 red:
"It is noil'iug, my child absolutely notirng; only as you
gible by i
i.l do not belong to this mercantile people, per-
,'o back to the land from win 'lie- you came.
: ;i there waste your time in tho churches all tho
:\g, if you like it; if, indeed, waste of timo it be, to bestow
it on Hun who is Lord of time as well as of eternity."
i. lid his lir.nd on her head as he spoke, in token of fare-
and the action recalled Francesco so vididly to her mind,
that Aguese burst into tears. The stranger cast one more
glance of compassion upon her, bowed to Lady Oranmore, and
abruptly quitted the room. As soon as he had fairly closed
the do r, the hitter tried to make Aguese comprehend the in-
ntility of seeking for open churches in England upon any day
but bunday. Had she told her the sun had left the heavens,
the blind child would probably have been infinitely less as-
d, To all her ladyship's arguments as to the necessity
of attending to business, the dut- men owed to themselves and
their children of unceasing toil from morning until night, Agrej
:
" Then lie is left alone, no one to pray to Him all the week
long ! no one to worship Jlim ; no one to love Him ; and yet,
Hi- is there only that we may love Him and speak to Him quite
at our
Lady Oranmore felt at last she was only wasting her rhetoric;
;ie, and endeavored to console the weepiug
child by assuring her that, on their arrival at Orauinoro
Castle, she would take her to the village church which she had
always been in the habit of attending herself, and in which on
Sundays, at least, she might pray all the day long, if she liked
it. Agnese did not seem quite so enchanted with this assu-
rance as her ladyship expected ; in fact, she began to doubt
seriously as to the nature of her grandmother's religion. The
prediction of Francesco appeared on the point of fulfilment,
and she felt it was not, perhaps, in vain that he had required
her so solemnly to promise to be faithful to Jesus even unto
, How for sbe was right in her conjectures my readers
already know ; but, although Lady Oranmoro had fully reeolved
upon changing the religion of her grandchild, she yet
shrunk from inflicting the pain which she felt such a resolution
wou:d o:,usc to iis object. The possibility of Agnese's resisting
her authority never, for an instant, occurred to her mind.
i a mere child," thought she "what on earth ; difference
can il make to her?" And yet, something in her own heart
told her there was a difference a difference which she hud
ing to
lit and ceremonial of the Catholic Church which she
1 had uursed it into its fervent religion before ventur-
1 new
form to its worship. She little knew the
strength of the mind, young as it was, with which fhe had to
that faith which had <
:iprehond the enduring character of
d itself on Aguese's heart, for
she feit that she herself at the same age. had b.vn totally without
any fix la principle of any kind, and that, at the
bare instigation of a sup.Tior, she would have gone quite will-
ingly to any
(>
ch. laud.
With such a. recollection in her ov/u heart, it was not difficult
, f in t.hr- growing indifference of Ag-
quiet -way in v latter received the cus:
1' "AY." c. o church
the we.iile r is too cold, or ( da;np, or too foggy. K n,
not in Italy,