Then they got down again and Sister Paul took away the steps.

For a few moments both women knelt down before the altar.
They left the church by the nuns' staircase, bolting the door behind them, and ascended to the corridors and reached Beatrice's room.
Unorna's door was open, as the nun had left it, and the yellow light streamed upon the pavement.

She went in and extinguished the lamp, and then came back to Beatrice.
"Are you not afraid to be alone after what has happened ?" she asked.
"Afraid?
Of what?
No, indeed." Then she thanked her companion again and kissed Sister Paul's waxen cheek.
"Say a prayer, my daughter--and may all be well with you, now and ever!" said the good sister as she went away through the darkness.

She needed no light in the familiar way to her cell.
Beatrice searched among her numerous belongings and at last brought out a writing-case.

Then she sat down to her table by the light of the lamp that had illuminated so many strange sights that night.
She wrote the name of the convent clearly upon the paper, and then wrote a plain message in the fewest possible words.