he said she was well armed, and
showed Evelyn several rosaries, which in case of need she would wave in
his face.

Sister Mary John was digging in the kitchen garden, and Evelyn told her
how she had come upon Miss Dingle in the summer-house surrounded by
pious pictures. Leaning on her spade, Sister Mary John looked across the
beds thinking, and Evelyn wondered of what. She said at last that Miss
Dingle thought too much of the devil.

"We should not waste thoughts on him, all our thoughts should be for
God; there is much more pleasure and profit in such thoughts."

"But it does seem a little absurd to imagine that the devil is hiding
behind gooseberry bushes."

"The devil is everywhere, temptation is always near."

Evelyn saw that the nun did not care for discussion on the subject of
the devil's objectivity, and in the pause in the conversation she
noticed Sister Mary John's enormous boots. They looked like a man's
boots, and she had a full view of them, for Sister Mary John wore her
skirt very short, so that she might be able to dig with greater ease.

"One of the disadvantages of convent life are the few facilities it
affords for exercise and for music," she added, with her beautiful
smile. "I must have exercise, I can't live without it.... It is
extraordinary how differently people are constituted. There is Mother
Mary Hilda, she had never been for what I should call a good sharp walk
in her life, and she does not know what an ache or a pain is."

The nun pointed with admiration to the bed which she had dug up that
morning, and complained of the laziness of the gardener: he had not done
this nor that, but he was such a good man--since he became a Catholic.

"He and I used to talk about things while we were at work: he said that
he had never had it properly explained to him that there should only be
one true religion.

"Since he became a Catholic, has he not done as much work as he used to
do?"

"No, I'm afraid he has not," Sister Mary John answered. "Indeed, we have
been thinking of sending him away, but it would be difficult for him to
get another Catholic situation, and his faith would be endangered if he
lived among Protestants."

At this moment they were interrupted by a loud caw, and looking round,
Evelyn saw the convent jackdaw. The bird had hopped within a few yards,
cawing all the while, evidently desirous of attracting their attention.
With grey head a-slanted, the bird watched them out of sly ey