Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/240

 Sister Philomene had reported to the Superior. She recalled the remark now as she waited for Sister Cuthbert to respond to the summons she had sent.

"I wonder how she will take it?" she thought. "She will do her duty—there is no doubt of that. But will this experience do her good or harm?" She started almost guiltily at the sound of Sister Cuthbert's gentle tap on the door, and when the young nun had entered and stood awaiting orders with respectful, downcast eyes, her superior found it oddly difficult to speak. When she spoke, the words came slowly.

"We have both had bad news, Sister," she said. "We must pray for each other, that God may give us strength to bear it rightly."

She handed the two letters to her and bade her read them. Sitting in her big chair, she noted with her steady, clear eyes every change of expression on the other's face. There were many. Sister Cuthbert had unfolded her own letter first and glanced at the signature. Then, with a quick flush and a word of apology, she laid it down and read the other slowly and carefully. She looked up when she finished, with a sweet, modest sympathy in her glance. Her reverence for her superior had something of awe in it. She was about to speak, when Sister Philomene said, quietly: