It was upon this the Knight had counted, when he laid his plains.
Six Seven Eight Blessed Saint Joseph! How slowly they walked! Nine Ten Eleven The Knight gripped the cloak and moved a step further back into the shadow.
Twelve Were all the pillars rocking?
Was the great new Cathedral coming down upon his head?
Thirteen The Prioress was beside him in the shadow.
She had stepped aside.
The twelfth White Lady was moving on, her back toward them.
The fourteenth was shuffling down, but had not yet appeared.
Hugh slipped his left arm about the Prioress, holding her close to him; then flung the folds of the cloak completely around her, and over his left shoulder, pressing her head down upon his breast.
Thus they stood, motionless; her face hidden, his eyes bent upon the narrow archway in the wall.
The fourteenth White Lady appeared; evidently noted a wider gap than she expected between herself and the distant figure almost at the steps, and hastened forward.
The fifteenth also hastened.
The sixteenth chanced to have taken the stairs more quickly and, appearing almost immediately, noticed no gap.
Seventeen Eighteen Nineteen Twenty Not one had turned her head in the direction of the pillar.

The procession was moving, with stately tread, along its accustomed way.
A delicious sense of security enveloped Hugh d'Argent.
The woman he loved was in his arms; she was his to shield, to guard, to hold for evermore.
Twenty-one Twenty-two She had come to him--come to him of her own free will.

Holding her thus, he remembered those wondrous moments at the entrance to the crypt.

How hard it had been to loose her and leave her.

Yet how glad he now was that he had done so.
Twenty-three Twenty-four When all these white figures are gone, safely started on their mile-long walk, the door shut and locked behind them--then he will fold back the cloak, turn her sweet face up to his, and lay his lips on hers.
Twenty-five Praise the holy saints! The last! But what an old ferret! Yes; Mother Sub-Prioress gave the Knight a moment of alarm.