5-28-23 9 A TALE OF CONSCIENCE. BY THE AUTHOR OF GERALDINE. Agnew Emily C. NEW YORK: D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 164 WILLIAM STREET. MONTREAL, C. E.: CORNER NOTRE DAME AND ST. FRANCIS XAVIER STREETS. 1852. ROME AND THE ABBEY. CHAPTER I. Once youthful actors they, with hearts as keen, NEAR the head of the Lake of Geneva, in the pretty garden of the inn at Vevey, in the evening of the 18th of August, 1845, sate an English party; who, desiring privacy, as far as circumstances might permit, were in a group apart from the assembled inmates of that favourite and joyous house, and were gazing in pleased silence on the mimic ocean before them, with its ebb and flow of tide, its sands and shingles. A priest, two religious, and a female servant occupied a long bench, overshadowed by acacias; while, on the low wall which encloses the garden from the road by the lake, leaned a beautiful girl, who, from her age and animated looks, might well have borne her part in the gay dance now going forward in the principal room: and sometimes she beat time and smiled approval to the music; but it was more familiar to her and had less power over her attention than the new and lovely scene before her and as she turned more fully round from time to time, exclaiming, "Oh, |