Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/108

, is a friend of Madame Holstein's. They met in Germany, and Grace is to entertain her when she comes here in February. I simply cannot wait, for, of course, I shall meet her."

The nun smiled.

"Dear Miss Iverson," she said, gently, "I wonder how the world will treat you when you go out into it with that boundless enthusiasm of yours. I am afraid you will have many disappointments and disillusions."

May looked after her a little resentfully as she went down the hall. "She actually thinks," she murmured, "that she knows more about life than I do." The reflection cheered Miss Iverson, who sighed in happy contemplation of her vast experience during two summer vacations.

Ernestine soon grew accustomed to her new surroundings, and went through the day with placid contentment on her brow. There were attractive small girls around her, and had she not a fascinating new friend, "The Sister Cecilia," as she called her, who took her for walks in the garden and told her stories and, best of all, listened to Ernestine s own stories of her mother? It was a singular friendship, and the quiet nun heard strange tales of travel and music and musicians and great concerts—vivid little word-pictures unconsciously