But early in the morning I was wakened by a rapping at my door, and there stood Brother Philip, holding your letter, Reverend Father." "Alas!" said the Bishop.

"Would that I had known she would have whereby to explain away thy memory of that which I had said." Yet the Bishop spoke perfunctorily; he spoke as one who, even while speaking, muses upon other matters.

For, within his secret soul, he was fighting the hardest temptation yet faced by him, in the whole history of his love for Mora.
By rapid transition of mind, he was back on the seat in the garden of the White Ladies' Nunnery, left there by Mary Antony while she went to fetch the Reverend Mother.

He was looking up the sunny lawn toward the cloisters, from out the shade of the great beech tree.

Presently he saw the Prioress coming, tall and stately, her cross of office gleaming upon her breast, her sweet eyes alight with welcome.