“Cara mia! I want worship, homage, and adoration myself, and it is as absolute a necessity of my being, as if I had been born up there, and knew nothing of this base earth and its belongings. Be just, my dearest sister, and see for once the difference between us. You have a charming husband, who never plagues, never bores you, whom you see when it is pleasant to see, and dismiss when you are weary of him. He never worries you about money, he has no especial extravagance, and does not much trouble himself about anything--I have none of these. I am married to a man almost double my age, taken from another class, and imbued with a whole set of notions different from my own. I can't live with _his_ people; my own won't have me. What then is left but the refuge of that emotional existence which the Church offers?--a sort of pious flirtation with a runaway match in the distance, only it is to be heaven, not Gretna Green.” “So that all this while you have never been serious, Gusta?” “Most serious! I have actually written to my husband,--you read the letter,--acquainting him with my intended change of religion, and my desire to mark the sincerity of my profession by that most signal of all proofs,--a moneyed one. As I told the Cardinal last night, Heaven is never so sure of us as when we draw on our banker to go there!” “How you must shock his eminence when you speak in this way!” “So he told me; but I must own he looked very tenderly into my eyes as he said so. Isn't it provoking?” said she, as she arose and moved out into the garden. “No post yet! It is always so when one is on thorns for a letter. Now, when one thinks that the mail arrives at daybreak, what can they possibly mean by not distributing the letters till evening? Did I tell you what I said to Monsignore Ricci, who has some function at the Post Office?” “No, but I trust it was not a rude speech; he is always so polite.” “I said that as I was ever very impatient for my letters, I had requested all my correspondents to write in a great round legible hand, which would give the authorities no pretext for delay, while deciphering their contents.” “I declare, Gusta, I am amazed at you. I cannot imagine how you can venture to say such things to persons in office.” “My dear sister, it is the only way they could ever hear them. There is no freedom of the press here; in society nobody speaks out. What would become of those people if they only heard the sort of stories they tell each other; besides, I 'm going to be one of them. They must bear with a little indiscipline.' The sergeant always pardons the recruit for being disorderly on the day of enlistment.” The Countess shook her head disapprovingly, and was silent.