, the
elder woman would probably have stopped her and told her not to make
confidences that concerned another person until she was calmer. But
she evidently had full control of her words and outward bearing, and
the Mother listened in silence. Then the young nun expounded the
conclusion to which she believed herself forced: she must leave a
country in which Giovanni might at any moment make another meeting
inevitable, and the safest refuge was the Rangoon Leper Asylum. She
formally asked permission to be allowed to join the mission.

The Mother Superior's nervous little hand contracted spasmodically
upon her eyes, and then joined its fellow on her knee. She sat quite
still for a few seconds, looking towards the window; the evening glow
was beginning to fill the garden and the cloisters with purple and
gold, and a faint reflection came up to her suffering face.

'It kills me to let you go,' she said at last, just above a whisper.

The words and the tone took Sister Giovanna by surprise, though she
had lately understood that the Mother Superior's affection for her was
much stronger than she would formerly have believed possible; it was
something more than the sincere friendship which a middle-aged woman
might feel for one much younger, and it was certainly not founded on
the fact that the latter was an exceptionally gifted nurse, whose
presence and activity were of the highest importance to the hospital.
Neither friendship nor admiration for a fellow-worker could explain an
emotion of such tragic depth and strength that it seemed almost too
human in a woman otherwise quite above and beyond ordinary humanity.
Sister Giovanna could find nothing to say, and waited in silence.

'I did not know that one could feel such pain,' said Mother Veronica,
looking steadily out of the window; but her voice was little more than
a breath.

The Sister could not understand, but in the midst of her own great
trouble, the sight of a suffering as great as her own, and borne on
account of her, moved her deeply.

All at once the Mother Superior swayed to one side on her chair, as if
she were fainting, and she might have fallen if the nun had not darted
forward to hold her upright; but at the touch, she straightened
herself with an effort and gently pushed the young Sister away from
her.

'If it is for me that you are in such pain, Mother,' said Sister
Giovanna gently, 'I cannot thank you enough for being so sorry! But I
do not deserve t