But, nay, forsooth! Neither of these will do! Thou must needs snatch away the Reverend Mother, Herself! Oh, sacrilegious fiend! Stand not there mocking me! Where is the Reverend Mother ?" "Why, here am I, dear Antony," said the Prioress, in soothing tones, coming quickly from behind the hedge.
One glance revealed, to her relief, that the lay-sister was alone.
Tears ran down the furrows of her worn old face.

She knelt upon the grass; beside her a large nosegay of flowering weeds; upon the seat, peas strewn from out a much-used, linen bag.

Above her on a bough, a robin perched, bending to look, with roguish eye, at the scattered peas.
To the Prioress it seemed that indeed the old lay-sister must have taken leave of her senses.
Stooping, she tried to raise her; but Mary Antony, flinging herself forward, clasped and kissed the Reverend Mother's feet, in an abandonment of penitence and grief.
"Nay, rise, dear Antony," said the Prioress, firmly.

"Rise! I command it.

The day is warm.