KEEPS VIGIL
XXXIX. THE "SPLENDID KNIGHT"
XL. THE HEART OF A NUN
XLI. WHAT THE BISHOP REMEMBERED
XLII. THE WARNING
XLIII. MORA MOUNTS TO THE BATTLEMENTS
XLIV. "I LOVE THEE"
XLV. THE SONG OF THE THRUSH
XLVI. "HOW SHALL I LET THEE GO?"
XLVII. THE BISHOP is TAKEN UNAWARES
XLVIII. A STRANGE CHANCE
XLIX. TWICE DECEIVED
L. THE SILVER SHIELD
LI. TWO NOBLE HEARTS GO DIFFERENT WAYS
LII. THE ANGEL-CHILD
LIII. ON THE HOLY MOUNT
LIV. THE UNSEEN PRESENCE
LV. THE HEART OF A WOMAN
LVI. THE TRUE VISION
LVII. "I CHOOSE TO RIDE ALONE"
LVIII. THE WARRIOR HEART
LIX. THE MADONNA IN THE HOME
LX. THE CONVENT BELL

The White Ladies of Worcester

CHAPTER I

THE SUBTERRANEAN WAY

The slanting rays of afternoon sunshine, pouring through stone arches,
lay in broad, golden bands, upon the flags of the Convent cloister.

The old lay-sister, Mary Antony, stepped from the cool shade of the
cell passage and, blinking at the sunshine, shuffled slowly to her
appointed post at the top of the crypt steps, up which would shortly
pass the silent procession of nuns returning from Vespers.

Daily they went, and daily they returned, by the underground way, a
passage over a mile in length, leading from the Nunnery of the White
Ladies at Whytstone in Claines, to the Church of St. Mary and St.
Peter, the noble Cathedral within the walls of the city of Worcester.

Entering this passage from the crypt in their own cloisters, they
walked in darkness below the sunny meadows, passed beneath the
Fore-gate, moving in silent procession under the busy streets, until
they reached the crypt of the Cathedral.

From the crypt, a winding stairway in the wall led up to a chamber
above the choir, whence, unseeing and unseen, the White Ladies of
Worcester daily heard the holy monks below chant Vespers.

To Sister Mary Antony fell the task of counting the five-and-twenty
veiled figures, as they passed down the steps and disappeared beneath
the ground, and of again counting them as they reappeared, and moved in
stately silence along the cloister, each entering her own cell, to
spend, in prayer and adoration, the hours until the Refectory bell
should call them to the evening meal.

This counting of the White Ladies dated from the day, now more than
half a century ago, when Sister Agatha, weakened by prolonged fasting,
and chancing to