Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/172

 that filled her heart. Oh, Life—what a marvellous thing it was! And what an instructor was this Love, that gave the birds speech which humans understood and made eloquent the rippling water and the growing plants. The very perfume that came to her seemed a message from him. Yes? Why, the whole world was saying "Yes" this moment!

Sister George brought her back to her surroundings with a gentle shake that was a caress.

"Think well, little sister, before you turn Dr. Schuyler from you," she said again. "There is no doubt of your love for him. Even I, shut away from all these things, can read it in your eyes. The very insects around us to-day have your secret, my self-absorbed young friend."

Alice caught her hand between her own and kissed it.

"Thank you," she breathed. "You have shown me the way. I shall take it; I shall say 'Yes' to-night. Yes,—yes,—yes!"

The nun bent and kissed her on the forehead. "God bless you," she said, "and make you happy. About the future you need have, I think, no foreboding. Dr. Schuyler is not a man to break his word." She looked up over the garden as she spoke. For the girl at her side, life was beginning to expand. For her it