Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

82 DANGER IN THE DARK.
brought in-borne to the altar by sisters of charity;
several lighted candles were placed round -them ; now
the priest, assisted by the sisters of charity, lifted
Anna Maria and Arabella from their knees and laid
them in the coffins; sprinkled holy water upon them;
said mass; then lifting them out again, flung over
their heads, black vails, which dropped down in front
in the form of a cross. The initiated were then pronounced
dead to the world ; and presented to the
Abbess, with the charge, that she should teach them
the solemn duties of saints and carefully watch over
their souls. They were now led by the superior to II
part of the convent they had not before been permitted
to enter-and where only such as wear the black vail,
are ever allowed to go. After receiving from the
•
Abbess a lesson on self-denial and the necessity of
penance, fasting, and the saying prayers, they were
left to their meditations. Singular as it may seem,
the deluded girls appeared now, all at once, to awake
from the spell that had bound them, and to have II
realizing sense of the fearful step they had just taken.
" Arabella, and is this our doom I" said Maria, in
a desponding tone, "are we here to spend our daysi
0, ,!hat an indescribable feeling of desolation comes
over me 1 Alas 1 what strange infatuation has led
us to seek this comfortless sbode l"
Arabella answered not, but throwing her arma
round Maria's neck, burst into a flood of tears.
While they were silently weeping, locked in each
other's embrace, Helen Bower, one of the nuns, the