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So saying, she called a nun, her attendant (by a singular

distinction she had two assigned for her private service), and

sent her to inform the abbess; she then called the portress, and

made with her and Agnes the necessary arrangements. Then taking

leave of the superior, she dismissed Agnes to her room, but

retained Lucy. The signora, who, in presence of a capuchin, had

studied her actions and her words, thought no longer of putting a

restraint on them before an inexperienced country girl. Her

discourse became by degrees so strange, that, in order to account

for it, we will relate the previous history of this unhappy and

misguided person.