This woman's face was bathed in tears, her eyes were raised to Heaven, and an expression of profound despair was imprinted on her countenance. Father Seraphin understood with the instinct of his heart that there was a great misfortune here that required unsolving, and addressed the stranger.
"Poor woman, what do you want here? Why do you weep?
"Alas! Father," she answered, "I have lost all hope of being happy in this world."
"Who knows, madam? Tell me your misfortunes. God is great; perhaps He will give me the power to console you."
"You are right, father; God never deserts the afflicted, and it is above all when hope fails them that He comes to their assistance."
"Speak then with confidence."
The strange woman began in a voice broken by the internal emotion which she suffered.
"For more than ten years," she said, "I have been separated from my son. Alas! Since he went to America, in spite of all the steps I have taken, I have never received news of him, or learned what has become of him, whether he be dead or alive."
"Since the period of which you speak, then, no sign, no information however slight, has reassured you as to the fate of him you mourn?"
"No, my father, since my son, the brave lad, determined to accompany his foster-brother to Chili."