The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-06-11

a one some day. ourselves. Nina-you
viii marry me when i come back?"
"Si :" she said again, looking up at
him. Then he kissed her.
God bless you. dear" he said, ana
and she said the same to him.
He never came back. because the [
boat went down off Caprera, with al.
hands
Ding. ding, ding. It was the Angel
US. Sister Veronica slid from the bench
to her knees, tears in her eyes.
Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariae
And when the bell ceased ringing she
continued to pray. She was praying
for forgiveness. for had not her
thoughts been sinful2
That night Sister Veronica dreamed a
dream. She was sitting by an open win
dow about which blew long tendrils of
scarlet runners. Below her was the sea
and she was watching a fishing boat
with rust colored sails as it bounded
along toward her. And he knew that
in the boat was Giuseppe and he was
coming home tO-them. For on her
breast lay sleeping baby a brown
round. dimpled thing with silky rings
ofs hair and a red mouth. 1t was so
warm and soft, ana she loved it so
much
Just as the boat reached land the
baby aWOke and smiled at Marianina
f (for she was Marianina in the dream).
and with a rush of mother love which
warmed her all over she stopped to kiss
it. But before her lips touched the half
opened mouth-Sister Veronica awol1e
God forgive me. she cried, feeling
for her rosary; what wicked woman
1 amt She rose hastily. and, lighting
her lantern. she crept down the long
corridor to the chapel
Sister Veronica knelt down before the
high altar in an agony of repentance,
sobbing and praying at once Could
God ever forgive her? She who had been
a nun for nearly forty years to dream
that she had a husband and baby
She knelt there until daylight was be-
ginning to sift in through the window,
while the statues and pictures about her
looked on with unmoved eyes
That aav sister veronica did severe
ipenance, eating hardly anything and
avoiding the garden as though the devil
We're awaiting her there in person. Ana
she went to sleep at night with her
hard bOny rosary under her cheek ana
Ave on her lips.
But she dreamed again of the baby
Tt was laughing and Growing ana dane
ing so that she could hardly hold It.
She awoke with her arms folded tight
across her breast. and cried when she
found them empty. Bimbo, Blmbo
She naurmured With little conscience
stricken shrek she rose and went again
to the chapel. The next night It wax
the same thing, and the next
She was in despair. Haggard and wild
eyed she went about, going from her
cell to the chapel and then back to her
cell where she did heaven knows what
to subdue her unruly heart And the
worst of ii was that she loved ner
dreams. In the midst of her prayers the
feeling-nOt the thought, for her MIND
was bent resOlutely on her prayer-bur
the feeling would come to her Tonight
shall see it again and hold it in my
arms"
Ia. I.sr he f7cs for. fTx
And then one day the archbishop
came and said mass with much splendor
in the chapel It was a beautiful ser
vice with a great deal of gold embroid-
, cry and incense. for the church though
, humble in doctrine is very magnlhcen'
in practice
Poor Sister Veronica as she knelt
thought of a plan whose audacity hall
frightened her, but to which she made
up her mind, for she must have help
z she thought. or she would ule- Con-
e sciences are like men, When they nave
8 3 had too much artificial stimulation they
9. sometimes become unruly. So Sister
Veronica went to the abbess, who was
the archbishop's sister, and the abbess
/. arranged for her a private audience with
G his excellency.
p sister Veronica knelt and kissed the
.c archiepiscOpal hand, which was well
st shaped and beautifully kept. But when
T. his excellency wished to bless her she
p shrank back
NO. no" she cried st am too wick
u ed 7 am a sinful woman, eecellenza.'
n The shadow of smile crossed his ex-
+ cellency's face He had seen this sort
J. Of thing before So many bad people
. live their lives through thinking them
e selves good that perhaps things are
q balanced when some few good people
y imagine themselves bad.
. He waited in silence for a minute
=, and then asked her what it was that
. troubled her And she told him al
II about it. beginning with the bird on ths
# well curb
II Il tried. oh. tried not to think. &C.
cellenza, she said; but the sun and the
spring smells, and the sky and then
eccellenza, the flower. Just such flow
er and I hadn't seen one for 40 years
: I'm a miserable creature, not fit to bt
( in this holy house"
n my daughter" said his excellencS