your tend her hands about me; in sorrow I could no’ hear your voice; and in joy and happiness you were never with me to share them!  I had not your advice, my blessed mother, to guide and direct me, to tache me what was right and what was wrong!  Oh, if you will not hear your own poor lonely orphan, who will you hear? if you will not assist her, who ought you to assist? for, as sure as I stand here this night, you are a blessed saint in heaven.  But let me not forget the Virgin Queen of Heaven, that I am bound to.  I kneel to you, Hope of the Afflicted!  To you let them go that have a broken heart, as I have!  Queen of Glory, pity me!—­Star of the Sea—­Comfort of the Hopeless—­Refuge of Sinners, hear me, strengthen and support me!  And you will, too.  Who did you ever cast away, mild and beautiful Virgin of Heaven?  As the lily among thorns, so are you among the daughters of Adam!* Yes, Denis, she will support me—­she will support me!  I feel her power on me now!  I see the angels of heaven about her, and her mild countenance smilin’ sweetly upon the broken flower!  Yes, Denis, her glory is upon me!” The last words were uttered with her eyes flashing wildly as before, and her whole person and countenance evidently under the influence of a highly excited enthusiasm, or perhaps a touch of momentary insanity.

     * The form of the Service of the Virgin, from which
     most of the above expressions are taken is certainly
     replete with beauty and poetry.

Poor Denis stood with streaming eyes, incapable of checking or interrupting her.  He had always known that her education and understanding were above the common; but he never anticipated from her such capacity for deep feeling, united to so much vivacity of imagination as she then displayed.  Perhaps he had not philosophy enough, at that period of his youth, to understand the effects of a solitary life upon a creature full of imagination and sensibility.  The scenery about her father’s house was wild, and the glens singularly beautiful; Susan lived among them alone, so that she became in a manner enamored of solitude; which, probably mote than anything else, gives tenderness to feeling and force to the imaginative faculties.  Soon after she had pronounced the last words, however, her good sense came to her aid.

“Denis,” said she, “you have seen my weakness; but you must now see my strength.  You know we have a trial to go through before we part for ever.”

“Oh!  Susy, don’t say ‘for ever.’  You know that the vow you made was a rash vow.  It may be set aside.”

“It was not a rash vow, Denis.  I made it with a firm intention of keepin’ it, and keep it I will.  The Mother of God is not to be mocked, because I am weak, or choose to prefer my own will to hers.”

“But, Susy, the Church can dissolve it.  You know she has power to bind and to loose.  Oh, for God’s sake, Susy, if you ever loved me, don’t attempt to take back your promise.”