Still gliding onward, Hilda now looked up into the dome, where the

sunshine came through the western windows, and threw across long shafts

of light. They rested upon the mosaic figures of two evangelists above

the cornice. These great beams of radiance, traversing what seemed the

empty space, were made visible in misty glory, by the holy cloud of

incense, else unseen, which had risen into the middle dome. It was to

Hilda as if she beheld the worship of the priest and people ascending

heavenward, purified from its alloy of earth, and acquiring celestial

substance in the golden atmosphere to which it aspired, She wondered if

angels did not sometimes hover within the dome, and show themselves, in

brief glimpses, floating amid the sunshine and the glorified vapor, to

those who devoutly worshipped on the pavement.

She had now come into the southern transept. Around this portion of the

church are ranged a number of confessionals. They are small tabernacles

of carved wood, with a closet for the priest in the centre; and, on

either side, a space for a penitent to kneel, and breathe his confession

through a perforated auricle into the good father's ear. Observing this

arrangement, though already familiar to her, our poor Hilda was anew

impressed with the infinite convenience--if we may use so poor a

phrase--of the Catholic religion to its devout believers.

Who, in truth, that considers the matter, can resist a similar

impression! In the hottest fever-fit of life, they can always find,

ready for their need, a cool, quiet, beautiful place of worship. They

may enter its sacred precincts at any hour, leaving the fret and trouble

of the world behind them, and purifying themselves with a touch of

holy water at the threshold. In the calm interior, fragrant of rich and

soothing incense, they may hold converse with some saint, their awful,

kindly friend. And, most precious privilege of all, whatever perplexity,

sorrow, guilt, may weigh upon their souls, they can fling down the dark

burden at the foot of the cross, and go forth--to sin no more, nor be

any longer disquieted; but to live again in the freshness and elasticity

of innocence.

"Do not these inestimable advantages," thought Hilda, "or some of them

at least, belong to Christianity itself? Are they not a part of the

blessings which the system was meant to bestow upon mankind? Can the

faith in which I was born and bred be perfect, if it leave a weak girl

like me to wander, desolate, with this great trouble crushing me down?"

A poignant anguish thrilled within her breast; it was like a thing that

had life, and was struggling to get out.

"O help! O help!" cried Hilda; "I cannot, cannot bear it!"

Only by the reverberations that followed--arch echoing the sound to

arch, and a pope of bronze repeating it to a pope of marble, as each

sat enthroned over his tomb--did Hilda become aware that she had really

spoken above her breath. But, in that great space, there is no need to

hush up the heart within one's own bosom, so carefully as elsewhere;

and if the cry reached any distant auditor, it came broken into many

fragments, and from various quarters of the church.




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