Absorbed in thought, I knew not when the service ended. A hand touched me, and looking up I saw Mere Marguerite, who whispered: "Follow me, if you please."
I rose and obeyed her mechanically. Outside the chapel door she said: "Pray excuse me for hurrying you, but strangers are not permitted to see the nuns and boarders passing out."
I bowed, and walked on beside her. Feeling forced to say something, I asked: "Have you many boarders at this holiday season?"
"Only fourteen," she replied, "and they are children whose parents live far away. Poor little ones!" and the set lines of the nun's stern face softened into tenderness as she spoke. "We do our best to make them happy, but naturally they feel lonely. We have generally fifty or sixty young girls here, besides the day scholars."
"A great responsibility," I remarked.
"Very great indeed!" and she sighed; "almost terrible. So much of a woman's after life depends on the early training she receives. We do all we can, and yet in some cases our utmost efforts are in vain; evil creeps in, we know not how--some unsuspected fault spoils a character that we judged to be admirable, and we are often disappointed in our most promising pupils. Alas! there is nothing entirely without blemish in this world."
Thus talking, she showed me into a small, comfortable-looking room, lined with books and softly carpeted.
"This is one of our libraries," she explained. "The countess will receive you here, as other visitors might disturb you in the drawing-room. Pardon me," and her steady gaze had something of compassion in it, "but you do not look well. Can I send you some wine?"
I declined this offer with many expressions of gratitude, and assured her I was perfectly well. She hesitated, and at last said, anxiously: "I trust you were not offended at my remark concerning Nina Romani's marriage with you? I fear I was too hasty?"
"Not so, madame," I answered, with all the earnestness I felt. "Nothing is more pleasant to me than a frank opinion frankly spoken. I have been so accustomed to deception--" Here I broke off and added hastily, "Pray do not think me capable of judging you wrongly."
She seemed relieved, and smiling that shadowy, flitting smile of hers, she said: "No doubt you are impatient, signor; Nina shall come to you directly," and with a slight salutation she left me.