Sealed Lips — page 282: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

274 SEALED LIPS. have said adieu to the world and all its troubles. You have made me break my promise by a subter- fuge that I excuse. Ah! I am cruelly punished for leaving my desert home! Why did those whose orders I must obey send me here.” Jenny listened, but she did not understand the old man’s trouble, for he seemed elevated by age and austerity above the things of this world. Once more he looked at the young woman with eyes moistened by emotion, then by a brusque move- ment he placed his hand on her head, and said, softly : “God bless you, my child! May we each of us have peace soon, with pardon for all our faults.” Without another word he disappeared. Madame Sauval entered almost immediately after, and found her daughter in a collapsed state, lost in reflections that completely absorbed her. “T just met in the vestibule an old priest, who had a very beautiful beard,” said the Roumanian. “Did he come out of here?” “Yes, mother; he isa monk who is soliciting alms for a good work.” | “He is very timid for his age, he drew himself up against the wall, as if he was afraid that my skirts would touch him, and I never even saw the color of his eyes.” Madame Sauval had very little love for priests, no matter who they were, but she especially detested those who solicited alms. GoOmichboo KS Geom