"
"Then if I had been Cecilia, I should have become a nun," said Mary,
timidly.
"Exaggeration, my daughter, is an enemy to truth. It is easy to say,
'I would become a nun,' and in Roman Catholic countries it is quite as
easy to become one; but, though it may be sublime to retire in this
way from the world, it is frightful when a woman has afterwards to
regret the inconsiderate step she has taken, and which is often the
case with these poor creatures."
"As you said of myself," remarked Willis, "it is a crime to go down
with a sinking ship so long as there is a straw to cling to."
"I presume," continued Wolston, "that during this year poor Cecilia
prayed fervently for the return of her old playfellow; but her prayers
were all in vain, the year expired, and still no news of the young
man; at last she despaired of ever seeing him again, and, after a
severe struggle with herself, she decided upon complying with the
desire of her parents and her friends. A few months after the expiring
of the year of grace, she was the affianced bride of a highly
respectable, well-to-do, middle-aged gentleman. John Lindsey, her
intended husband, could not boast of his good looks; he was little,
rather stout, was deeply pitted in the face with the small-pox, and
had a very red nose, but he was considered by the ladies of Bristol as
a very good match for all that.
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