another visitor, and must not detain you." "Farewell, most reverend Father," answered Don Luis, rising at the hint, and respectfully kissing the hand held out to him. "I shall not easily forget your conversation; and your advice I will bear to my father." The tinkle of a bell summoned a lay brother, who escorted Don Luis from the apartment, the Superior following the young man's retiring form with his piercing glance. "He will yet be mine," he uttered, half aloud. "He is wary and timid, and will not take the bait at the first sight; but it is too bright and dazzling not to attract him at last, and he will play round it till he is caught." The door again opened, and another visitor entered, the Superior rising and embracing him with every mark of respect; and, having led him to the seat he had himself occupied, took one of humbler dimensions, while he seemed prepared to listen attentively to the words which might fall from the lips of his friend. He was a man far advanced in life, of a tall and gaunt figure; his gown, of the fashion of the Jesuits, fitting ill around him. His hair, only partially grizzled, though shorn at the top, he wore (unusually for a priest) in long straggling locks, probably in affectation, to increase the wildness of his extraordinary countenance, which was furrowed and bronzed by exposure to the weather and burning climes. His features were coarse, and thoroughly unintellectual; but his eyes gave expression to the whole physiognomy: they were large, round, dark, and lustrous, with a certain turn in them which caused those who beheld him to suppose that they were glancing in different directions. Every lineament proclaimed the fanatical enthusiast, which the style and substance of his oratory fully confirmed. Such was the appearance of the holy Father Malagrida, for he whom we have described was that celebrated personage. "Pax vobiscum, holy Father," he began, in a low, deep voice, though with rather a nasal sound. "The spirit of the Blessed Virgin ordered me, in a dream, to come to you, to consult you regarding the best means of preserving the honour and glory of our order inviolate at this critical juncture; yet think not that it was a common dream which prompted me, but a beatific vision of the fair daughter of Saint Anne, in the form she wore before she knew that she was to be the joyful mother of the King of men." "You are favoured with partiality by Heaven, Father Malagrida," answered the Superior; "and happy are you to rejoice in so great a blessing, while I am left to grope my way in darkness, without any such signs of Heaven's approbation."