The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-10-22

f# always been her wish to spend Christ
 ]: !: #ER f# mas in the serene atmosphere of the gray, @&SsN rambling old Convent of All Saints, which, #@ &zH like gaunt but kindly sentinel stands on I@A 4@A the brow of hill overlooking the qua1nt iM $ M old French Canadian town of the same name.
 She was of different faith and had
 4ma been sent to the convent out of deference
 ND for her French and not for her religion;
 but among the hundred odd pupils
 enrolled there, dearly loved sFs drauefty old convent, the sweetvoced nuns, the courtyard tapped in mystic silence for droning bee or uneiodious chant with it's sundal and it's denora- ;z.d ,,afhs of brick dsjointed and dis1ocated by encroachng sweetwiams, gardenias, naarigolds, and rose 1eranitrns all of which, since they craved the allowed by gentle lay sisters to grow at their own sweet TiiLvery much, Father Augustin jocosely said like the pupils.
 s,forta,1e rosy and plump shrewd yet kindly, dry ~pir;tuai and yet somehow 1ovab1y humorous was sff7er Atiqnstir and versed deeply i'll the human heart as in his theologies: and it him Elizabeth loved best of ali It was Father Augustn who divned that grief which early as October sent Elizabeth to the chapel seek soace in twice or thrice a day was than a surface grief
 Not being of the good Abbe's faith, the path which might have led directly from her heart to his through confession denied her, and Father Augusn cast abonr devise other means of probing and curing the which the quick instinct of the priest told him existed.
 One afternoon early in November during the ion hour when pupils and played garpes on the large lawn the side of the convent Elizabeth alone
  sekeds that she on her knees in the chapel
 The chapel gave the courtyard garden, deserted and silent this hour the grave Here Father As1gustin waited until Elizabeth emerged from the cioister He heard her light footstep cracking among leaves. She stood beside the seat of cru- bling marble, hung with ivy, which he sat
 Father Augustini' p
 -Elizabets desire speak with thee. clild
 She down beside him, vague misty pain looking out of the eyes she had lifted his face
 My daughter, I have thee grow from child
 
 pre thy heart undehed myself siness blood and flesh be- Yet day after day thee to the altar and thy heart in passionate that the burden which mpelled it. if cause and effect : be commensurate, must be which maid of thy years standing upon the threshold of life should be ignorant of Speak frankly me, my daughter thou wouldst speak witir thine father were he here"
 \ Elizabeth burst into gusty fit of weeping Nay" she cried, eff I to speak to you as to my own father, would speak all, for he has turned a deaf to all entreaties. Stone rock, iron, and adamaht has he been. But you, dear Father Augustin, will understand
 With some hesitation and many self-imposed inter raptions Elizabeth told her tale. It was the same old commonplace trite story-so banal and stale 10 wh9 hnow the wosd @ ana i'd on %o of hfbe e whirpools of life with shrug of the shoulder and comes in the springtine of life. when through the ao1dgatss of youth meant to admit joy and love Elzabeth's father, before leaving France, Eliza sanged ssfa pledge With riend of ha the boy of six that the boy and girl on reaching na a man gagement to be celebrated the coming Christ 
 @And how, dear Father Augustin" concluded the eiri, "can I love I have never seen, of whom know not whether he be gentle or rough, say can love him? And not loving hin1-how can marry him? For Is not marriage sacrament only when it consecrates 1ove?'
 Fafher Augnstin furrowed his brow. Marriage without love he held to be but whit less v1le than love without marriage: Yet this ne could not tell this spotess slip of girl.
 Before answer thee. he said Il must know one thing Dost thou love another?"
 Elizabeth shook her head in vigorous negat1on Where was to have met such another, dear Father Augustin7' she asked. "A11 my life have lived here in the convent, excepting the annual n1er vacation which spent mountain seashore resorts, where there interesting matters to do tran o spea1zstot strange young men
 Father Augustin stroked his beardless lip and h1d q smile. He was accustomed to th1nk rapidly, and forget that he had left unanswered an embarrassing uuestian, he said:
 s1Re content, my child I will try to find some of Tightening thy burden At least Will en- eIeavor slave off the catastrophe until next spring And-.vould it please thee?-I think thou hast e0- pressed the wish in former years to spend thy Christn1as holidays here with us? . brine at to pass verify will believe you wizard enough from that hateful marriage as we'll Father Augustin smiled sly sagac1ous snllie and his bitie eyes shrewdly inscrutable .
 We will live he said 'and we will see
 fortnight later it announced that Father xzzsstin was forced travel all the way to Nev. York on 8 matter of business But the world would have accounted this truthful descTiptlon since xoved neither money :nerchand1se nor com 41,eree But o the unworthy, snple-hearted old priest fine breaking of girls heart was more serious a matter than the miscarriage of argosles-