Sister Mary Rebecca, mounted upon a stool, attempted to spy through the
hole over the rope and pulley by means of which the Reverend Mother
rang the Convent bell. But all Sister Mary Rebecca saw, after bumping
her head upon a beam, and her nose on the wall, owing to the
impossibility of getting it out of the way of her eye, was a portion of
the top of the Reverend Mother's window.
She cried out, as a great discovery, that the curtains were drawn back;
upon which, Mother Sub-Prioress, exclaiming, tartly, that that had been
long ago observed from the garden below, pushed the stool in her anger,
and sent Sister Mary Rebecca flying.
Jumping to save herself, she alighted heavily on the feet of Sister
Teresa, striking Mary Seraphine full in the face with her elbow, and
scattering, to right and left, the crowd around the door.
This cleared a view for Mother Sub-Prioress straight down the passage
and through the big open door, to the cloisters; when, looking up--to
scold Mary Rebecca for taking such a leap, to bid Sister Teresa cease
writhing, and Mary Seraphine to shriek in her cell with the door shut,
if shriek she must--Mother Sub-Prioress saw the Bishop, alone and
unattended, walking toward them from the cloisters.
"_Benedicite_," said the Bishop, as he approached. "I am fortunate in
chancing to find the whole community assembled."
The Bishop's uplifted fingers brought the nuns to their knees; but they
rose at once to their feet again and crowded behind Mother Sub-Prioress
as, taking a step forward, she hastened to explain the situation.
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