Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/171

 she felt, too, strangely buoyant without the support she had expected.

"Why not?" asked the nun, gently. "Am I not human? Should I, because I am happy here, urge you to a life of loneliness outside? For some day, dear little girl, when youth is gone and your parents are dead and your friends have fallen away, life in that big, hungry world would be terrible. Then you might carry into your old age a regret for what you have missed, and regret is a bitter companion for one's declining days."

Alice Twombly listened in silence. How different was the advice from what she had expected, and how sweet! The mellow, beautiful voice beside her was answering all her doubts, quieting all her fears, leading her back to the sane and normal point of view she had so resolutely put away from her. She would take the advice of this good friend who knew what was best. One word from Sister George had always had more weight with her than much advice from others. She would say "Yes," and the world would be brighter and better because there were two supremely happy people in it.

And now that it was decided, let the birds burst their little throats in song! Their flood of melody was merely an expression of the joy