Evelyn got up too, and they waited till the elderly nun slowly crossed
the lawn. Evelyn noticed, even when the Reverend Mother was seated, that
Veronica remained standing.

"You can go now, Veronica."

Veronica smiled a little good-bye to Evelyn, and left them immediately.

"Veronica told you, Miss Innes, I was taking my watch?"

"Yes, Reverend Mother."

"I hope she has not been wearying you with the details of our life?"

"On the contrary, I have been very much interested.... Your life here is
so beautiful that I long to know more about it. At present my knowledge
is confined to the fact that the second storey in the new wing is the
novitiate, and that there are four novices and two postulants." The
Reverend Mother smiled, and after a pause Evelyn added--

"But Sister Veronica is very young."

"She is older than she looks, she is nearly twenty. Ever since she was
quite a child she wished to be a nun. Even then her mind was quite made
up."

"She told me that when she was a child her great pleasure was to be
allowed to walk in the convent garden."

"Yes. You don't know, perhaps, that she is my niece. My poor brother's
child. She was left an orphan at a very early age. Her's is a sad story.
But God has been good: she never doubted her vocation, she passed from
an innocent childhood to a life dedicated to God. So she has been spared
the trouble that is the lot of those who live in the world."

An accent of past but unforgotten sorrow had crept into her voice; and
once more Evelyn was convinced that she had not, like Veronica, passed
from innocent childhood into the blameless dream of convent life. She
had known the world and had renounced it. In the silence that had fallen
Evelyn wondered what her story might be, and whether she would ever hear
it. But she knew that in the convent no allusion is made to the past,
that there the past is really the past.

"I hope that you will sing for us at Benediction. All the sisters are
longing to hear you. It will be such a pleasure to them."

"I shall be very glad ... only I have brought nothing with me. But I
daresay I shall find something among the music you have here."

"Sister Mary John will find you something; she is our organist."

"And an excellent musician. I noticed her playing."

"She has always been anxious to improve the choir, but unfortunately
none of the sisters except her has any voice to speak of.... You might
sing Gounod's 'Ave Maria' at Benedictio