was in fact directed more for her ears, than for the gates of heaven, but she paid no attention to it, so much was she grieved at the disappearance of her lover. The words which might have explained it, fell an empty sound on her ear, and she knew not what to think. At the expiration of a month or two, when her grief had become milder and his absence less tormenting, she one day had been thinking of him during the sermon, and for the first time connecting the prayer with him and his absence, and all the accompanying circumstances, she suddenly divined its meaning, wondered at her own stupidity in not before discovering it, and in her heart admired and praised the ingenious device. It is true that these prayers have no very high reputation for efficacy, and are but a weak support for those pious persons who rely upon them. The warmth of devotion is generally nea ly exhausted at the end of the sermon, but in Mela it only then began; the prayers at the end of the service gave new ardour to her piety, and she never omitted to recommend the young traveller very particularly to both his and her patron saint.
