Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/130

 The plan did not especially appeal to the quiet inmates of the cloister, but they had nothing better to suggest, except that she remain in its safe shelter with them. They did this only tentatively, for nuns are not prone to give such advice to their pupils. The gentle proposal did not appeal to Miss Randolph. She shook her auburn head, and her red-brown eyes twinkled mischievously.

"I must see life first," she laughed. "There is a big, beautiful world beyond these walls, and I want to know what it's like. I must know. For years the longing for it has been in me. If it treats me badly, I'll come home."

So they let her go because they could do nothing else, and the world swallowed her as if she had been a small and succulent oyster. At first, letters from her drifted back into the cloister at close intervals, strange letters, showing how rapidly the girl was turning the pages of life's great ledger. And at longer intervals a letter from the cloister went to her, sweet with the love and prayers of the gentle friends behind the convent walls.

Katherine Randolph used to re-read these letters sometimes, and even think them over a little. But she was very busy, for she wished to see life and the world, and many men