"I will not, Reverend Mother, disguise from you the fact that this young lady, Desireè de La Mothe has plainly testified to the existence of certain very grave scandals under this roof; such as are not to be tolerated in any community, much less a religious one. These things having been brought to my ears by my relation by marriage to the Count de Crequi, it becomes my duty to thoroughly investigate them. I have no doubt that such an investigation will turn to your credit and that of your family—" here I saw the two priests again exchange looks—"but nevertheless it is, as you must see, my duty to make it." "Assuredly, Mon seignor!" answered the Superior. "I have no other wish than to afford you every facility. How would your Greatness wish to proceed?" "Oh! I suppose the proper way would be to examine each one of the family separately; which I will myself do with your permission. But these are not all!" "All, Mon seignor! Save one!" "And the lay sisters?" "We have none, Mon seignor; our last lay sister died a year ago, at the age of eighty-nine. For a long time all the work of the house and garden has been performed by the choir sisters." "This is indeed holy poverty!" said the Bishop, turning to his two attendants, who remarked in answer that it was very edifying, one of them adding it was to be hoped that the cares of this life had not distracted the sisters from their religious duties. "I do not think such cares are apt to have that effect!" said the Bishop somewhat sharply. "How say you, Reverend Mother!" "We have hitherto been enabled to keep up the practice of perpetual adoration of the holy sacrament," answered the Superior. "At no time since my entrance into the house, has it been suspended for a whole hour. The only sister now absent is at her post in the chapel; nor so far as I know have we failed in any of the other services of our holy religion. The heart of course is known only to God." "And this is all that remains of the family once numbered by scores!" said the Bishop. "And who are these young ladies?" he asked turning to Amabel and myself, who were close to the grating at one end, as Mother Assistant was at the other. "These are two young English girls!" was the reply. "Sir Julius Leighton, a Catholic gentleman of England, left them under my charge about thirteen years ago, and they have been with me ever since; but I am expecting to part with them very soon." This explanation made, the sisterhood were directed to withdraw, while the Superior remained. The Sisters were then called in and examined one by one, returning with very pink faces, and very indignant. "That wicked Desireè—that snake in the grass!" Such were some of the epithets bestowed upon her. "That she should dare to say that we received the visits of men! As if I ever spoke to a man save the Confessor and old Jacques the gardener, since I was first professed!" said Sister Filomena, bursting into a flood of tears as she rejoined us.