Before going in search of the intruder, she had ordered Mary Antony to
the kitchens; and disobedience to a command of the Reverend Mother, was
a thing undreamed of in the Convent.
Afterwards, her anxiety lest any question should come up concerning the
return of a twenty-first White Lady when but twenty had gone, was
completely set at rest by that which had seemed to her old Antony's
fortunate mistake in believing herself to have been mistaken.
In recounting the fictitious vision, with an almost uncanny cleverness,
Mary Antony had described the Knight, not as he had appeared in the
Prioress's cell, in tunic and hose, a simple dress of velvet and cloth,
but in full panoply as a Knight-Crusader. The shining armour and the
blood-red cross, fully in keeping with the vision, would have precluded
the idea of an eye-witness of the actual scene, had such a thought
unconsciously suggested itself to the Prioress.
As it was, it seemed beyond question that all the knowledge of Hugh
shewn by the old lay-sister, of his person his attitude, his very
words, could have come to her by Divine revelation alone. That being
so, how could the Prioress presume to doubt the climax of the vision,
when our blessed Lady placed her hand in Hugh's, uttering the wondrous
words: "Take her. She hath been ever thine. I have but kept her for
thee."
Over and over the Prioress repeated these words; over and over she
thanked our Lady for having vouchsafed so explicit a revelation.
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