"
Sister Mary Mark hesitated. She certainly had seen the Lord Bishop
pass under the rose-arch, and enter the garden, in close converse with
Sister Mary Antony. Yet her trust at the gate was given to her by the
Reverend Mother.
"See here, Mary Mark," said Sister Antony. "I must send a message
forthwith to Mother Sub-Prioress. You shall take it, leaving me in
charge of the gate, as often I am left, by order of the Reverend
Mother, when you are bidden elsewhere. If, on your return--and you
need not to hurry--you find me gone, none can blame you. Yet when the
Lord Bishop rides in at sunset, he will give you his blessing and, like
enough, something besides."
Mary Mark's hesitation vanished.
"I will take your message, Sister Antony," she said meekly.
"Go, by way of the kitchens and the Refectory stairs, to the cell of
Mother Sub-Prioress. Say that the Reverend Mother purposes passing the
night in prayer and vigil, will not come to the evening meal, and
desires Mother Sub-Prioress to take her place. Also that for no cause
whatever is the Reverend Mother to be disturbed."
Sister Mary Mark, being thus given a legitimate reason for leaving her
post and gaining the Bishop's favour without giving cause for
displeasure to the Prioress, departed, by way of the kitchens, to carry
Mary Antony's message.
No sooner was she out of sight, than Mary Antony seized the key,
unlocked the great doors, pulled them apart, and left them standing
ajar, the key in the lock; then hastened back across the courtyard,
passed under the rose-arch, and creeping beneath the shelter of the yew
hedge, reached the steps up to the cloisters; slipped unobserved
through the cloister door, and up the empty passage; unlocked the
Reverend Mother's cell, entered it, and softly closed and locked the
door behind her.
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