We entered it, and were rowed for a mile or more up the stream till the boat halted at a landing-place beneath a high wall.

Leaving it, we came to a door in the wall on which my companion knocked thrice.

Presently a shutter in the woodwork was drawn, and a white face peeped through the grating and spoke.

My companion answered in a low voice, and after some delay the door was opened, and I found myself in a large walled garden planted with orange trees.

Then the abbess spoke to me.
'I have led you to our house,' she said.