er precipitately
from their cells to that deep crypt, closed, in the middle of the little
church, by a single square flag of marble, having two brass studs in it,
and bearing the simple inscription: 'Here lie the bones of the Reverend
Sisters of the order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.' On the
whole, it is doubtful whether the practice of not calling in the doctor
on ordinary occasions had much influence upon the convent's statistics
of mortality.

But though the abbess had more than once had a cold in her life, she had
never suffered so seriously as this time, and she had made little
objection to her niece's strong representations as to the necessity of
medical aid. Therefore Sor Tommaso had been sent for in the evening and
in great haste, and had taken with him a supply of appropriate material
sufficient to kill, if not to cure, half the nuns in the convent. All
the circumstances which he remembered from former occasions were
accurately repeated. He rang at the main gate, waited long in the
darkness, and heard at last the slapping and shuffling of shoes along
the pavement within, as the portress and another nun came to let him in.
Then there were faint rays of light from their little lamp, quivering
through the cracks of the old weather-beaten door upon the cracked
marble steps on which Sor Tommaso was standing. A thin voice asked who
was there, and Sor Tommaso answered that he was the doctor. Then he
heard a little colloquy in suppressed tones between the two nuns. The
one said that the doctor was expected and must be let in without
question. The other observed that it might be a thief. The first said
that in that case they must look through the loophole. The second said
that she did not know the doctor by sight. The first speaker remarked
with some truth that one could tell a respectable person from a
highwayman, and suddenly a small square porthole in the door was opened
inwards, and a stream of light fell upon Sor Tommaso's face, as the nuns
held up their little flaring lamp behind the grating. Behind the lamp he
could distinguish a pair of shadowy eyes under an overhanging veil,
which was also drawn across the lower part of the face.

"Are you really the doctor?" asked one of the voices, in a doubtful
tone.

"He himself," answered the physician. "I am the Doctor Tommaso Taddei of
the University of the Sapienza, and I have been called to render
assistance to the very reverend the Mother Abbess."