ed by this sudden realisation of loss, worn out in mind and
exhausted in body, the Bishop sank upon the seat.

Mora was safe with Hugh. That much had been accomplished.

For the rest, things must take their own course. He could do no
more--go no further.

Then he heard again her voice in the arbour of golden roses, saying, in
those low sweet tones which thrilled his very soul: "He stood to me for
all that was vital and alive, in life and in religion; strong to act;
able to endure."

During five minutes the Bishop sat, eyes closed, hands firmly clasped.

So still he sat, that the little Knight of the Bloody Vest, watching,
with bright eyes, from the tree overhead, almost made up his mind to
drop to the other end of the seat. He was missing Sister Mary Antony,
who had not appeared at all that morning. This meant neither crumbs
nor cheese, and the "little vain man" was hungry.

But at the end of five minutes the Bishop rose, calm and purposeful;
moved firmly up the lawn, mounted the steps, and passed into the
cloisters.

CHAPTER XXXVII

WHAT MOTHER SUB-PRIORESS KNEW

Mother Sub-Prioress had applied her eye, for the fiftieth time, to the
keyhole; but naught could she see in the Prioress's cell, save a
portion of the great wooden cross against the opposite wall.

Sister Mary Rebecca, mounted upon a stool, attempted to spy through the
hole over the rope and pulley by means of which the Reverend Mother
rang the Convent bell. But all Sister Mary Rebecca saw, after bumping
her head upon a beam, and her nose on the wall, owing to the
impossibility of getting it out of the way of her eye, was a portion of
the top of the Reverend Mother's window.

She cried out, as a great discovery, that the curtains were drawn back;
upon which, Mother Sub-Prioress, exclaiming, tartly, that that had been
long ago observed from the garden below, pushed the stool in her anger,
and sent Sister Mary Rebecca flying.

Jumping to save herself, she alighted heavily on the feet of Sister
Teresa, striking Mary Seraphine full in the face with her elbow, and
scattering, to right and left, the crowd around the door.

This cleared a view for Mother Sub-Prioress straight down the passage
and through the big open door, to the cloisters; when, looking up--to
scold Mary Rebecca for taking such a leap, to bid Sister Teresa cease
writhing, and Mary Seraphine to shriek in her cell with the door shut,
if shriek she must--Mother Sub-Prioress s