Are any of you serious about this Melinda thread? I think it's fascinating. Melinda seems to have been forced to join a convent. "'Neath blackened hair" might be a reference to the black veil of the habit. "The council of the cross" would probably be the male heads of the church. "In conceeded faith and crumbling mirth" and "The promise is made but my heart is thine" might be a reference to Melinda being forced to take the vow of nunnishness, against her will. And are there two main male characters or just one?? There is the young one, whom Melinda seems to have borne. And the father of her child, maybe "the Pest through the Air"??