And
the explanations which she gave of her movements, and of the motives
which led to them, embodied in the following statement of what
happened from the time when she left the church to the time when she
re-entered the city, are the result of her subsequent declarations,
when called upon to account for her occupation of those hours.
The aged Capucine friar had, as we know, watched her take the path
that led to the farmhouse on the border of the wood. And having
looked after her as long as she was in his sight, he sighed heavily,
and, turning away, went back to his prayers in the church. But had
he been able to watch her on her way a few minutes longer, he would,
if the girl's own account of her movements were correct, have seen
her change the direction of her walk.
About half-way between the eastern end of the church, by which the
path the friar had indicated to Paolina passed, and the farmhouse on
the border of the forest, another path, skirting what had once
apparently been the cemetery attached to the church, turned off at
right angles to the left, so as, after some distance, to rejoin the
road on its way towards the city. And this path, according to her
own account, Paolina took; thus abandoning her intention of reaching
the forest at the spot where the farmhouse stood. Why had she thus
changed her purpose?
Various thoughts and feelings, which had presented themselves to her
in the space of the minute or two she had occupied in walking round
to the eastern end of the church, had contributed to produce this
change in her purpose.
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