The door had in one of its panels the usual grating and shutter.
Sarrion sat down without looking round him, in the manner of a man who knew his surroundings, and took no interest in them.
In a few minutes the door opened noiselessly--there was a too obtrusive noiselessness within these walls--and a nun came in.

She was tall, and within the shadow of her cap her eyes loomed darkly.

She closed the door, and, throwing back her veil, came forward.

She leant towards Sarrion, and kissed him, and her face, coming within the radius of the lamp, was the face of a Sarrion.
There was in her action, in the movement of her high-held head, a sudden and startling self-abandonment of affection.

For Spanish women understand above all others the calling of love and motherhood.