you value the intercession of our Holy Mother, have you always been faithful to your husband? If only by a look or a gesture, it is important to your salvation hereafter that you should confess it now."
I was silent, dumbfoundered for a moment or two. "Ah! my daughter, conceal nothing. Alas! it is as I feared—conceal nothing from me, or it will be impossible for me to grant you absolution."
Thus pressed, and feeling but a full confession would avail me with the Confessor, I told him everything and especially how sorry I felt at having allowed my pique at the Earl's neglect to have carried me into such a liaison, and that the tender regard he had lately exhibited towards me smote me to the quick for my unfaithfulness, and that that was the reason I had so given way to lasciviousness with him, in order to compensate, by the perfect abandon of my love, for any suspicions he might entertain.
"My daughter, I must consult our Superior.
