CHAPTER VII.
Heard through the Door.
Twenty minutes' walking brought me to the wood which lay between the road and the convent.

I pressed on; soon the wood ceased and I found myself on the outskirts of a paddock of rough grass, where a couple of cows and half a dozen goats were pasturing; a row of stunted apple trees ran along one side of the paddock, and opposite me rose the white walls of the convent; while on my left was the burying-ground with its arched gateway, inscribed "_Mors janua vit_." I crossed the grass and rang a bell, that clanged again and again in echo.

Nobody came.

I pulled a second time and more violently.

After some further delay the door was cautiously opened a little way, and a young woman looked out.