Pagina 293 de 1118

Gertrude was silent during their ride; overcome and occupied by

conflicting thoughts, ashamed of her own want of resolution,

vexed with others as well as herself, she was still meditating

some way of escape, but every time she looked at her father, she

felt her destiny to be irrevocable. After the various engagements

of the day were over,-the dinner, the visits, the drive, the

conversazione, the supper,-the prince brought another subject

under discussion, which was the choice of a godmother (so they

called the lady who is selected as chaperone to the young

candidate in the interval between the request for admission, and

the putting on of the habit); the duty of this person was to

visit, with her charge, the churches, public palaces, the

conversazioni, in short, every thing of note in the city and its

environs; so as to afford a peep at that world they were about to

quit for ever.