The nuns would go down into the lighted church, and kneel and pray before the altar.

It would last some time, the midnight lessons, the psalms, the prayers--and she must be sure that all was quiet, for the deed could not be done in the room where Beatrice was sleeping.
She was conscious of the time now, and every minute seemed an hour, and every second was full of that one deed, done over and over again before her eyes, until every awful detail of the awful whole was stamped indelibly upon her brain.

She had sat down now, and leaning forwards, was watching the innocent woman and wondering how she would look when she was doing it.

But she was calm now, as she felt that she had never been in her life.

Her breath came evenly, her heart beat naturally, she thought connectedly of what she was about to do.