ife till it was little less than a
miracle that she was still alive herself, and altogether a wonder that
her fiery energy had not eaten up the small frail earthly part of her
long ago.

'But it must not be for the sake of the end,' she went on, before
Angela could speak, 'else you will be working only for the hope of
rest, and you will try to kill yourself with work, to rest the sooner!
You must think of what you are doing because it is for others, not for
what it will bring you by and by, God willing. Pray to live long and
to do much more before you die, if it be good; for there is no end of
the sickness and suffering and pain in this world; but few are willing
to help, and fewer still know how!'

She was silent, but her eyes were speaking still as Angela saw them
looking at her over the shaded light, her pale features illuminated
only by the soft reflection from the paper on the table.

The young girl felt a deep and affectionate admiration for her, and
resolved never to forget the brave words, but to treasure them with
those others spoken two years ago: 'Count your failures but not your
successes.'

She rose to take her leave, and, standing before the writing-table,
with each hand hidden in the opposite sleeve, she bent her head
respectfully.

'Thank you, Mother,' she said.

The nun nodded gravely, still looking at her, but said nothing more,
and Angela left the room, shutting the door without noise. The Mother
Superior did not go back to her accounts at once, though her hand
mechanically drew the next sheet from the pile, so that it lay ready
before her. She was thinking of her own beginnings, more than twenty
years ago, and comparing her own ardent nature with what she knew of
Angela's: and then, out of her great experience of character, a doubt
arose and troubled her strangely, though she opposed it as if it had
been a temptation to injustice, or at least to ungenerous thinking. It
was a suspicion that such marvellous calm as this novice showed could
not be all real; that there was something not quite explicable about
her perfect submission, humility, and obedience; that under the
saintly exterior a fire might be smouldering which would break out
irresistibly some day, and not for good.

The woman who had been tried doubted the untried novice. Perhaps it
was nothing more than that, and natural enough; but it was very
disturbing, because she also felt herself strongly attached to Angela,
and to suspect h