"My second year's residence in the convent was saddened by the tidings of the Countess Lorenska's death,--to me a calamity in more ways than one, for it made Father Ravenna my guardian, and him I had always viewed with secret dislike, if not with fear. "Now that I was growing older and more thoughtful, the question as to my parentage began to trouble me. Who was I? why kept ignorant of my origin? why put to this course of study? The abbess Teresa averred that all would ultimately be made clear by my guardian Ravenna, who would remove me from the convent as soon as I was eighteen. "On the eve of my eighteenth birthday Ravenna appeared, no longer a simple priest. His scarlet robes and the title 'Your Eminence,' addressed to him by the abbess, showed that he had risen to the dignity of a cardinal. "He held an interview with me in the quietude of my own apartment. He had not seen me for six years, remember, and of course during that time I had grown from girlhood into womanhood. "I noticed that as soon as he had set eyes on me he gave a start. I am certain that he murmured 'How like'! During the whole of the interview he walked to and fro, seemingly intent on studying my face and figure, now in one light, now in another, conduct which very much embarrassed me. "'Know, my daughter,' he began, 'that your father, supposed by you to be dead, is really living.' "You can imagine my surprise at this statement. "'Then why does he not acknowledge me?' "'He has lived under the belief that you died as soon as born.' "'He knows differently now?' "'I have informed him of his error.' "'And he has sent you to bring me to him?' I cried joyfully. "'Alas! there's a difficulty at present in the way of your meeting each other. Accustomed for eighteen years to regard you as dead, he listens with scepticism to the story that you are living. Nay, more, he avers the statement to be a conspiracy on my part." "'A conspiracy!' I repeated wonderingly. "'He has another daughter by a second wife, your half-sister, of whom he has grown passionately fond. You, as the elder, stand in the light of her interests; whatever she thought herself entitled to now devolves upon you. For this reason he seeks to deny your relationship to him.' "'They wrong me by such thoughts,' I cried. 'I ask not for wealth, but for affection.' "'Tut, tut,' returned the cardinal. 'We have clear proofs of your filiation and legitimacy. We shall compel him to acknowledge you. You shall not be deprived of your rights.' "'How came my father to think me dead?' "'I believe I am responsible for that error,' he said, with a smile that told me some interested motive lay at the root of his deception. "I was unable to control my indignation.