It had just occurred to her that the Bishop's word could not be taken against the evidence of all their senses! On that very morning, at five o'clock the Convent call to rise had been rung from _within_ the Prioress's cell! So Mother Sub-Prioress dried her eyes, punished her nose for sharing in the general breakdown, and looking with belligerent eye at the Bishop, said: "_If_ the Reverend Mother _be_ not within her cell, _perhaps_ it will please you, my lord, to _inform_ the Convent who is within it!" "That point," said the Bishop, "can speedily be settled." He took from his girdle the Prioress's master-key, handed over to him before he left Warwick.
Fitting it into the lock, he opened the door of the cell, and entered, followed by the Sub-Prioress and a crowd of palpitating, eager nuns.
A few paces from the door the Bishop paused, signing to Mother Sub-Prioress to come forward, but restraining, with uplifted hand, those who pressed in behind her.
The chamber was very still.
The chair of the Prioress was empty.
But, before the shrine of the Madonna, there lay, stretched upon the floor, the unconscious form of the old lay-sister, Mary Antony..