she could not see or hear him, she felt his presence.
Then one afternoon, looking from an upper dormer window, she saw a
scuffle going on outside the gateway, and heard angry voices. Thomas
Bolle was trying to force his way in at the door, whence he was repelled
by the Abbot's men who always watched there.

In the evening she gathered the truth from the nuns, who did not know
that she was listening to what they said. It seemed that Thomas, whom
they spoke of as a madman or as drunk, had tried to break into the
Nunnery. When he was asked what he wanted, he answered that he did not
know, but he must speak with Emlyn Stower. At this tidings she smiled to
herself, for now she knew that he had heard her, and that in this way or
in that he would obey her summons and come.

Two days later Thomas came--thus.

The September evening was fading into night, and Emlyn, leaving Cicely
resting on her bed, which now she often did for a while before the
supper-hour, had gone into the garden to enjoy the pleasant air. There
she walked until she wearied of its sameness, then entered the old
chapel by a side door and sat herself down to think in the chancel, not
far from a life-sized statue of the Virgin, in painted oak, which stood
here because of its peculiarities, for the back half of it seemed to be
built into the masonry. Also the eye-sockets were empty, which suggested
to the observant Emlyn either that they had once held jewels or that
this was no likeness of the holy Mother, but rather one of the blind St.
Lucy.

While Emlyn mused there quite alone--for at this hour none entered the
place, nor would until the next morning--she thought that she
heard strange noises, as of some one stirring, which came from the
neighbourhood of the statue. Now many would have been scared and
departed; but not so Emlyn, who only sat still and listened. Presently,
without moving her head, she looked also. As it happened, the light of
the setting sun, pouring through the west window, fell almost full upon
the figure, and by it she saw, or thought she saw, that the eye-sockets
were no longer empty; there were eyes in them which moved and flashed.

Now for a moment even Emlyn was frightened. Then she reasoned with
herself, reflecting that a priest or one of the nuns was watching her
from behind the statue, which they might do for as long as they pleased.
Or perhaps this was a miracle, such as she had heard so much of but
never seen. Well, why should