He began sometimes to feel that the full confidence of the archbishop waswithdrawn from him, but he was still high in office, and he rode withOppas over the great island, marking it out by slow degrees into sevendivisions, that each bishop might have a diocese and a city of his own.Soon the foundations began to be laid, and houses and churches began to bebuilt, for the soft volcanic rock was easily worked, though not very solidfor building. The spot for the cathedral was selected with the unerringeye for a fine situation which the Roman Catholic Church has always shown,and the adjoining convent claimed, as it rose, the care of Juanita. Asgeneral superintendent of the works, it was the duty of Luis sometimes tobe in that neighborhood, until one unlucky day when the two lovers,lingering to watch the full moon rise, were interrupted by one of theyounger bishops, a black-browed Spaniard of stealthy ways, who had beforenow taken it upon himself to watch them. Nothing could be more innocentthan their dawning loves, yet how could any love be held innocent on thepart of a maiden who was the kinswoman of an archbishop and was hisdestined choice for the duties of an abbess? The fact that she had neveryet taken her preliminary vows or given her consent to take them, countedfor nothing in the situation; though any experienced lady-superior couldhave told the archbishop that no maiden could be wisely made an abbessuntil she had given some signs of having a vocation for a religious life.
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