Yet the robin had come for his cheese, and the Sub-Prioress had come to give it to him.
Presently she slowly opened the wallet, took therefrom some choice morsels, and strewed them on the coping.
"Here, bird," she said, grimly; "I cannot let thee miss thy cheese because the foolish old creature who taught thee to look for it, comes this way no more.

Take it and begone!" This was the daily formula.
The "jaunty little layman," undismayed--though the look was austere, and the voice, forbidding--hopped gaily nearer, pecking eagerly.

No gaping mouths now waited his return.

His nestlings were grown and flown.

At last he could afford to feast himself.
Mother Sub-Prioress turned her back upon the coping and stared at the archway opposite.