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

" FI> ha < lint, fliis moment lef" i!:>- 1n>r
Lady Or.
and ii!
xvith 11
'-' ! 'H ''"" ! ^'y child,
you have acted nobly. Well, I know it was a '
.
I bad called it a'u in:
difficult, almost
eod. "
"It wt/uld have bet n cither or both, had T not lately been
kneeling
before ?/tm in the sacrament of !!i.-. 1 ve. But tho
of His abuuuV >.f His
. recollection of 7//;y) mid
enemies, so sol'lem-d my heari that the i
ley."
"
X.AV, imlet d, de:.r May," s::id Lady Ovaiimore, nffectiot]-
: "
I am willing to confess that
ntely ombraring her ;
Ho did not walk through tha streets in vain."
Agnesi) started from tho sofa, find thiv.v herself at her
iiiolhcr'a feet. So quick was the movement, there was
no time either to foresee or prevent it.
"Oh, grandmamma, you believe in His eucharistio reality
you say Him ! Then yon will belong to the Church whero
only Ho is to be fo:ind in the s icrament of His love ?"
t Jo I will, my precious one," whispered Lady Oranmore,
clasping Agneso to her bosom and weeping like a child.
May saw that tho effort had been too much for Agneso so
;
she gently untwined Lady Oranmore's arias from around her,
and laid heron the couch.
"Go you with her to the church," whispered Lady Oranmore
"I will follow soon at
; ; present I would be aloue."
She left the room, and there was a long pause, t'.uriug which
,
May hung anxiously over her palo sister.
"
May," whispered the latter, as soon as she had breath to
speak, " you have made her a Catholic."
But May shook her head.
"
I think, dear Agnese, you have done more with your
quiet love, than I with my vehement and impetuous nature.
would I knew how you did learn to love Him so !"
I
" I think I can tell you" said Agnese, hesitating ;
" at least
in part."
" Do, dearest, if it will not weary you ; for you are quite as
much a mystery to me, with your deep and holy thoughts, as
I fear my fiery ones sometimes make me be to you. "
"
I should like to tell," said Agnese :
" it would be a kind
of a relief to me, for I have been thinking very much abour, it
this morning, and it almost seems aa if my thoughts went
back of themselves to things I had nearly forgotten, ai:d to the
love for Jesus. I remember the first
very beginning of my
time I ever thought about it ; I was a very Ii' tie, child, and I
asked what was my name. Benita said it was Agnese, and that
Agnese meant lamb, and that Jesus also was called a lamb ;
and so, as my name was the name of Jesus, I ought always to
try and be resembling to Hun. And I asked how that might
be and she said that lambs were ; gentle creatures, and very
meek, and so, therefore, I ought to be meek likewise and from
;
that time I did try very hard to be meek, and never to m .ko
the least movement like impatience but still I could not ;
help
feeling very sail, because people "used to call me poor Agnese,
and poor blind child, and I knew, therefore, it wa,s a misfortune
to be blind and this made mo wet ; p eadly, that I could
not see. The children would also talk to mo of seeing this or
seeing that, and I could not see et all ; but I could hear them
and to feel so lonely in
play, and 1
laugh, and run, around m: ,
the midst of their merry romps, and so sad, that tho tears
were often in iriy eyes whether I would or no. Son., -limes, also,
the little ones who did not know me, came to ask mo to join in
'
the games, but the others would check them, and : say Hush !
that is blind Agnesy ; she cannot phiy about as wo do do not
;
to
1 her of her misfortune.' They
hear them but I could not ; help
did in it
doing so. At other
times it has happened that ill-naluivti
:
have mocked me for the blindness which tho others pit
not cry then ; it would have 1 > t' ii L rould; but
I felt too desolate to cry.
I tried rather to bu kind r to tie>:n !
Still I did not answer them unkind-
ly.
not forgot; en that Jesus was meek, a: id t :
t
!::!,
i Ii > l ke Him, I
must bu meek likewise. Ouedaymygraudmamma, ii^-uiia, siti-l
who p,-
i for grands
were visible or invisible to <
things.
v, ry glad
I did a
'
They see Him <
-11s upon our altars, my ... I was
to think I should see th..:o who lived w^
i
:
. and eon Id tell me what the La
1 went with Beuita to the convent wh
me just before wo left Naples. Tim,
i
Kid
sneh
ti v
d, I remember that first visit just JIM if it too'-
::;\. Beuita talked for a long time
but I was thinking so much of tho Lamb, and ,v>
go visit the altar where they :