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Man's future and thy own fate must remain hidden from thee, but

live so that thou mayest be ready for anything. If it be God's

will to prove thee in the duties of marriage, be ready to fulfill

His will." With this consoling thought (but yet with a hope for

the fulfillment of her forbidden earthly longing) Princess Mary

sighed, and having crossed herself went down, thinking neither of

her gown and coiffure nor of how she would go in nor of what she

would say. What could all that matter in comparison with the will

of God, without Whose care not a hair of man's head can fall?

CHAPTER IV