I used to argue with him on the latter point, asking why we Catholics, who believed that the gift of working miracles had never departed from certain favored persons, might not just as well believe that the gift of prophecy had never departed, either?
He would not dispute with me; he would only say that I must not waste time in thinking of such trifles; that I had more imagination than was good for me, and must suppress instead of exciting it.

Such advice as this only irritated my curiosity.
I determined secretly to search throughout the oldest uninhabited part of the Abbey, and to try if I could not find out from forgotten family records what the portrait was, and when the prophecy had been first written or uttered.

Did you ever pass a day alone in the long-deserted chambers of an ancient house ?" "Never! such solitude as that is not at all to my taste." "Ah! what a life it was when I began my search.

I should like to live it over again.

Such tempting suspense, such strange discoveries, such wild fancies, such inthralling terrors, all belonged to that life.