The White Ladies of Worcester - Florence L. Barclay

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to Warwick and tell thy priest, that which indeed he should know without the telling: that a nun does not break her vows. This is our final farewell, Hugh. Thou hadst best believe it, and go."

      "Our last farewell?" he said.

      "Our last."

      "Here and now?"

      "Here and now, dear Hugh."

      Looking into that calm face, so lovely in its sadness, he saw that she meant it.

      Of a sudden he knew he had lost her; he knew life's way stretched lonely before him, evermore.

      "Yes," he said, "yes. It is indeed farewell—here and now—forever."

      The dull despair in the voice which, but a few moments before, had vibrated with love and hope, wrung her heart.

      She still held her hands before her, as if to ward him off.

      "Ah, Hugh," she cried, sharply, "be merciful, and go! Spare me, and go quickly."

      The Knight heard in her voice a tone it had not hitherto held. But he loved her loyally; therefore he kept his own anguish under strong control.

      Placing the lantern on the ground, he knelt on one knee before her.

      "Farewell, my Love," he said. "Our Lady comfort thee; and may Heaven forgive me, for that I have disturbed thy peace."

      With which he lifted the hem of her robe, and pressed his lips upon it.

      Thus he knelt, for a space, his dark head bent.

      Slowly, slowly, the Prioress let drop her hands until, lightly as the fall of autumn leaves—sad autumn leaves—they rested upon his head, in blessing and farewell.

      But feeling his hair beneath her hands, she could not keep from softly smoothing it, nor from passing her fingers gently in and out of its crisp thickness.

      Then her heart stood still, for of a sudden, in the silence, she heard a shuddering sob.

      With a cry, she bent and gathered him to her, holding his head first against her knees, then stooping lower to clasp it to her breast; then as his strong arms were flung around her, she loosed his head, and, as he rose to his feet, slipped her arms about his neck, and surrendered to his embrace.

      His lips sought hers, and at once she yielded them. His strong hands held her, and she, feeling the force of their constraint, did but clasp him closer.

      Long they stood thus. In that embrace a life-time of pain passed from them, a life-time of bliss was born, and came with a rush to maturity, bringing with it a sense of utter completeness. A world of sweetest trust and certainty filled them; a joy so perfect, that the lonely vista of future years seemed, in that moment, to matter not at all.

      All about them was darkness, silence as of the tomb; the heavy smell of earth; the dank chill of the grave.

      Yet theirs was life more abundant; theirs, joy undreamed of; theirs, love beyond all imagining, while those moments lasted.

      Then——

      The hands about his neck loosened, unclasped, fell gently away.

      He set free her lips, and they took their liberty.

      He unlocked his arms, and stepping back she stood erect, like a fair white lily, needing no prop nor stay.

      So they stood for a space, looking upon one another in silence. This thing which had happened, was too wonderful for speech.

      Then the Prioress turned the key in the lock.

      The heavy door swung open.

      A dim, grey light, like a pearly dawn at sea, came downwards from the crypt.

      Without a word the Knight, bending his head, passed under the archway, mounted the steps, and was lost to view among the many pillars.

      She closed the door, locked it, and withdrawing the key, stood alone where they had stood together.

      Then, sinking to the ground, she laid her face in the dust, there where his feet had been.

      It was farewell, here and now; farewell forever.

      * * * * * *

      After a while the Prioress rose, took up the lantern, and started upon her lonely journey, back to the cloister door.

      CHAPTER XV

      "SHARPEN THE WITS OF MARY ANTONY"

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      When the Prioress started upon her pilgrimage to the Cathedral with the Knight, she locked the door of her chamber, knowing that thus her absence would remain undiscovered; for if any, knocking on the door, received no answer, or trying it, found it fast, they would hasten away without question; concluding that some special hour of devotion or time of study demanded that the Reverend Mother should be free from intrusion.

      The atmosphere of the empty cell, charged during the past hour with such unaccustomed forces of conflict and of passion, settled into the quietude of an unbroken stillness.

      The Madonna smiled serenely upon the Holy Babe. The dead Christ, with bowed head, hung forlorn upon the wooden cross. The ponderous volumes in black and silver bindings, lay undisturbed upon the table; and the Bishop's chair stood empty, with that obtrusive emptiness which, in an empty seat, seems to suggest an unseen presence filling it. The silence was complete.

      But presently a queer shuffling sound began in the inner cell, as of something stiff and torpid compelling itself to action.

      Then a weird figure, the wizen face distorted by grief and terror, appeared in the doorway—old Mary Antony, holding a meat chopper in her shaking hands, and staring, with chattering gums, into the empty cell.

      That faithful soul, although dismissed, had resolved that the adored Reverend Mother should not go forth to meet dangers—ghostly or corporeal—alone and unprotected.

      Hastening to the kitchens, she had given instructions that the evening meal was not to be served until the Reverend Mother herself should sound the bell.

      Then, catching up a meat chopper, as being the most murderous-looking weapon at hand, and the most likely to strike terror into the ghostly heart of Sister Agatha, old Antony had hastened back to the passage.

      Creeping up the stairs, hugging the wall, she had reached the top just in time to see, in the dim distance, the two tall white figures confronting one another.

      Clinging to her chopper, motionless with horror, she had watched them, until they began, to come toward her, moving in the direction of the Reverend Mother's cell. They were still thirty yards away, at the cloister end of the passage. Old Antony was close to the open door.

      Through it she had scurried, unheard, unseen, a terrified black shadow; yet brave withal; for with her went the meat chopper. Also she might have turned and fled back down the stairs, rather than into the very place whither she knew the Reverend Mother was conducting this tall spectre of the long dead Sister Agatha, grown to most alarming proportions during her fifty years' entombment! But being brave and faithful old Antony had sped into the inner cell, and crouched there in a corner; ready to call for help or strike with her chopper, should need arise.

      Thus it came to pass that this old weaver of romances had perforce become a listener to a true romance so thrilling, so soul-stirring, that she had had to thrust the end of the wooden handle of the chopper into her mouth, lest she should applaud the noble Knight, cry counsel in his extremities, or invoke blessings on his enterprise. At each mention of the Ladies Eleanor and Alfrida, she shook her fist, and made signs with her old fingers, as of throttling, in the air. And when the clerkly messenger, arriving to speak with the Lady Alfrida—who, Saint Luke be praised, was by that time dying—found the Knight awaiting him with a noose flung over a strong bough, old Antony had laid down the chopper that she might the better hug herself with silent

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