"I know she will come," he said to himself, "she cannot help it. Otherwise she would not be the bewitched maiden," and he smiled contentedly. Suddenly his eye fell upon the mirror of remembrance, which the Abbess had ordered to be taken back from the Church to his room, and the recollection of Father Aloysius came up before him. It compelled him as if drawn by unseen hands even in this his hour of temptation to look through the round glass. Feverish, burning with passion, with dark-rimmed eyes, and open sensuous month, did the face under the hood appear to him. He recognized the portrait of a broken down monk, against whom Father Aloysius had once warned him in Speyer, when giving him this curious memento. "My Son," had the worthy father said to him, "thou goest out in the world as a laic. Look from time to time into this glass, see that the expression of thy soul shows itself in thy features as befitting the garb to which thou art sworn." For a moment Paul was startled at his own appearance. But passion had subjugated every better feeling in him; with an oath he rushed at the casket and felled it to the ground. Glass and mirror lay in pieces before him. Hastily did he gather up the whole and shoved the shapeless bundle in a corner. He felt as if freed from some horrible goblin, and he hummed a popular air which he had lately heard. When our sinful resolves have reached a certain point, they seem to replace at times for a moment the quiet of an easy conscience. Feeling certain of success the Magister slept calmly and soundly for the first time for many weeks; but when he woke fresh and clear the following morning, his action of the previous day presented a totally different appearance. The fragments of the broken casket gazed reproachfully at him. The mirror of remembrance never answered its purpose better than now when lying in fragments before him. Sad and down cast Paul began to prepare himself for the evening service, which unfortunately he had to perform that very evening. Had he known how to reach Lydia, he would have cancelled the appointment, and he determined if it did take place, to remember in time the penitence which always follows every sin, and to seize this opportunity of separating for ever from Lydia.