Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/211

 thought and spirit and heart in the years to come. There is nothing I can do for you in the big world outside, but I can think of you and pray for you here every day. In the times you need me you must come to me. They will be many at first, for the world will have unpleasant surprises for you, and you will turn to me, I know—my little one, my little girl."

She kissed the wet cheek upturned to her, and drew her pupil gently towards the door. A ripple of applause rolled towards them from the hall. The orchestra had just finished its selection. They walked quickly down a side corridor which led to the stage wings. The fresh young voices of the convent quartette were raised in the song that preceded the valedictory. Elizabeth Van Nest smoothed her gloves, shook out her white plumage, and looked up into her friend's face with the smile and assurance of her childhood days.

"I will do my very bestest best," she said, tenderly. "Could I do anything else, with you looking on?"

Miss Van Nest's fellow-students at the medical college did her the honor to speculate about her with much interest. She was head and shoulders above them in her work; that they all felt and most of them admitted. It would