ed at
Sister Mary John, saying with her eyes that the suggestion must come
from her.

"If I were to take Miss Innes to the organ loft and show her what music
we have--don't you think so, Mother Philippa?'

"Yes, I think that would be the best thing to do.... I'm sure the
Reverend Mother would see no objection to your taking Miss Innes to the
organ loft."

Mother Philippa did not see the look of relief and delight that passed
in Sister Mary John's eyes, and it was Evelyn who had a scruple about
getting rid of Mother Philippa.

"I was so disappointed not to have seen you the day you came here; and
what made it so hard was that it was first arranged that it was the
Reverend Mother and I who were to meet you. I had looked forward to
seeing you. I love music, and it is seven years since I've spoken to
anyone who could tell the difference between a third and a fourth.
There's no one here who cares about music."

It seemed to Evelyn that the problem of life must have presented itself
to Sister Mary John very much as it presents itself to a woman who is
suddenly called to join her husband in India. The woman hates leaving
London, her friends, and all the habits of life in which she has grown
up; but she does not hesitate to give up these things to follow the man
she loves out to India.

"I don't know why it was settled that Mother Philippa was to meet you
instead of me; it seemed so useless, meeting you meant so little to her
and so much to me; I'm always inclined to argue, but that day the
Reverend Mother's heart was very bad; she had had a fainting fit in the
early morning; we all got up to pray for her."

"Yet she was quite cheerful; I never should have guessed."

"Mother Philippa and Mother Mary Hilda tried to dissuade her. But she
would see you."

"Then it is with her heart disease that the Reverend Mother rules the
convent," Evelyn thought, as she followed Sister Mary John up the spiral
staircase to the organ loft. She looked over the curtained railing into
the church. The watcher knelt there, her head bowed, her habit still as
sculpture, and Evelyn heard Sister Mary John pulling out her music. She
could not find what she wanted, and she sat with her legs apart,
throwing from side to side piles of old torn music.

"Never can one find a piece of music when one wants it: I don't know if
you have noticed that nothing is so difficult to find as a piece of
music. Day after day it is under your hands, it would seem