Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/155



HE friends of Alice Twombly received the news of her decision with enthusiasm mingled with gratitude. A beauty and prospective heiress, she was already sufficiently interesting to add zest to the lives of those around her. As a nun also—there was no end to the dramatic possibilities of the situation! For the charm of it all, they said, lay in the fact that she was not to enter a convent. There she would be shut away behind stone walls, and however fascinating her experience might be, the knowledge of it could not reach the outer world.

As a member of the Third Order, however, she could remain in the world, hold her place in society, entertain and be entertained, and give herself up to such good works as lay ready to her hand. She might even marry, if she wished. In fact, so far as outward appearance went, there would be little or nothing to distinguish her life from that of the usual society girl. She