ieve?"

Mother Ada, who is usually very pale, went red, and murmured something
which I could not hear.

"Nonsense!" said Mother Gaillarde.

To my unspeakable astonishment, Mother Ada burst into tears. She has so
many times told the children, and not seldom the Sisters, that tears
were a sign of weakness, and unworthy of reasonable, not to say
religious, women--that they ought to be shed in penitence alone, or in
grief at a slight offered to holy Church, that I could only suppose
Mother Gaillarde had been guilty of some profanity.

"It is very hard!" sobbed Mother Ada. "That you should set yourself up
in that way, when I was professed on the very same day as you--"

"What has that to do with it?" asked Mother Gaillarde.

"And my Lady shows you much more favour than she does me: only to-day
you have been in her rooms twice!"

"I wish she would send for you," said Mother Gaillarde, "for it is
commonly to waste time over some sort of fiddle-faddle that I despise.
You are heartily welcome to it, I can tell you! Now, come, Sister Ada,
don't be silly and set a bad example. It is all nonsense, and you know
it."

Off marched Mother Gaillarde with a firm step. Mother Ada continued to
sob.

"Nobody could bear such treatment!" said she. "The blessed Virgin
herself would not have stood it. I am sure Sister Gaillarde is not a
bit better than I am--of course I do not speak on my own account, but
for the honour of the Order: that is what I am anxious about. It does
not matter in the least how people tread _me_ down--I am the
humblest-minded Sister in the house; but I am a Mother of the Order, and
I feel Sister Gaillarde's words exceedingly. Pride is one of the seven
deadly sins, and I do marvel where Sister Gaillarde thinks she is going.
I shall offer my next communion for her, that she may be more
humble-minded. I am sure she needs it."

Mother Ada bit off her thread, as she said this, with a determined snap,
as if it had cruelly provoked her. I was lost in amazement, for Mother
Ada has always seemed so calm and icy that I thought nothing could move
her, and here she was making a fuss about nothing, like one of the
children. She had not finished when Mother Gaillarde came back.

"What, not over it yet?" said she, in her usual style. "Dear me, what a
storm in a porringer!"

Mother Ada gave a bursting sob and a long wail to end it; but Mother
Gaillarde took no more notice of her, only telling us all that Moth