CHAPTER XXI.
THE FLAME SCORCHES.
Katharine La Tour had now been three months in her new home, and she was charmed with her surroundings. To one whose life had been stormy, the quiet and seclusion of the convent were very grateful. She even sighed at the thought of leaving this haven of rest and once more mingling in the gayeties of the world.
She was of a temperament to which the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church strongly appealed. Whenever she entered one of the old cathedrals, an invisible spell held her senses. The ever-burning lamps, the grand, deep-toned music, the shrines which affection had dedicated to the dear departed, the mass which the priest recited daily and which broke the terrible silence between the living and the dead — all these influences seemed to deepen the enchantment which lulled her doubts to repose.
Monseigneur Ryder had superintended her instruction in the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and he had the satisfaction of knowing that his charge was convinced that she had found the
