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Behind them, Mother Sub-Prioress, holding something beneath her scapulary which gave to her more of a presence than she usually possessed. Solemn and official, nay, almost sacrificial was their measured shuffle, as they moved along the passage, and entered the cell of Mary Seraphine.
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. 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.
Now Anna Apenborg had hardly turned her back, to go and chatter all this back again to the sub-prioress, when Sidonia proceeded to tap some of her beer, and called the convent porter to her, Matthias Winterfeld, bidding him carry it with her greetings to the chaplain, David Ludeck. Never let him appear before her eyes in such unseemly trim.
He took from his girdle the Prioress's master-key, handed over to him before he left Warwick. Fitting it into the lock, he opened the door of the cell, and entered, followed by the Sub-Prioress and a crowd of palpitating, eager nuns. A few paces from the door the Bishop paused, signing to Mother Sub-Prioress to come forward, but restraining, with uplifted hand, those who pressed in behind her.
Yet somehow all knew that she wept because, in the hard old nut which did duty for her heart, there was a kernel of deep love for their noble Prioress. The other nuns wept, because Mother Sub-Prioress wept. The sobbing became embarrassing in its completeness. Wheresoever the Bishop looked he was confronted by a weeping nun.
"Ah, Reverend Mother," sighed the old lay-sister, "in this did I again do wrong meaning to do right. Sister Mary Augustine, coming into the kitchens with leave, from Mother Sub-Prioress, to make the pasties, and desiring to be free to make them heavy unhampered by my advice which, of a surety, would have helped them to lightness bade me go out and weed the garden.
Truth to tell, I had already made away with the tainted piece; but Mother Sub-Prioress was pleased to think it was in the pot, seething for the holy Ladies' evening meal; and wherefore should Mother Sub-Prioress not think as she pleased?
But on her way thither she found herself unexpectedly arrested before the marble group of the Virgin and Child. Mother Sub-Prioress never could see a naked babe without experiencing a feeling of irritation against those who had failed to provide it with suitable clothing.
And with hands devoutly crossed upon her breast, ferret face peering to right and left from out the curtain of her veil, Mother Sub-Prioress moved forward at the head of the nuns.
Such ill-timed devotion well-nigh merits penance. Rise from thy knees, and go at once about thy business." The Sub-Prioress hastened on. Scowling darkly, old Antony bent forward, looking, past Mother Sub-Prioress, up the cloister to the distant passage. Sister Mary Seraphine had reached her cell. The door was shut.
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