Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/205



HE graduation exercises were in progress. Elizabeth Van Nest heard the pening notes of the overture to "Die Zauberflöte" as she walked down the long corridor towards Commencement Hall. Many of her friends and classmates were members of the convent orchestra, and they had practised the music of the graduation programme until even Mozart's melodies beat drearily against the ear. Elizabeth had laughed with them over the seemingly endless repetitions, but now the music took on a sudden and unexpected charm. Her eyes filled with tears, and the hand that held her essay trembled a little. The heavy perfume of the flowers banked against the stage floated out to her. In half an hour she would be standing there delivering the valedictory. She wondered vaguely if she could do it—if, with this sickening sense of loneliness and loss strong in her, she could say to that