Then Sophy gave a cry—the cry of a child who says: "I wish I were dead!" She put up her hands to her face and sobbed out:
"Oh, I wish I could be a nun ... a nun!"
Very tenderly Father Raphael sat smiling down at her bowed head. Often had he listened to this cry—the cry of those who in a moment of extremity long for a cool refuge from the hot brawls of life. Then he said softly:
"You would make a most unhappy nun, my child."
In a small, ashamed voice she asked:
"Why do you say so, Father?"
"For many reasons. You have heard the expression, 'vocation,' have you not?"
"Yes, Father."
"You have been given brilliant gifts, great beauty, a little child—— There lies your 'vocation.' To live in the world yet not of it, that is the life to which God has called you."
"Oh, Father! You do not know me. Christ said: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit.' I am very proud, Father—horribly, wrongly proud."