Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/267

 Open Council. For years Saint Ernesta had spoken there but rarely, and only when the special weight of her age and long experience seemed required. Now, to the surprise of the convent community, her voice was suddenly raised in defence of the Imp, and she showed an understanding of the little girl's nature which awed her associates. The Imp, whose mental processes none had been able to follow, seemed an open book to the venerable nun. Again and again she did the things Sister Ernesta had said she would do under given conditions. Again and again the problems which her complex nature suggested were solved by the nun through some instinct which she could not, or would not, reveal. She herself saw little of the child, but she grew to know her better and better from the nuns daily recital of her escapades. And several times, when certain sad tales were told of the Imp's misdoings, the awe-struck Sisters distinctly saw Saint Ernesta's lips twitch, and once her thin old shoulders shook with something that seemed like, but obviously could not be, amusement. The nuns marvelled, but not long; for reflection needs a quiet atmosphere, and the Imp chose this time to crown her career at St. Mary's with a more audacious exploit than any of which she had yet been guilty.