Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/283

 The child who always sounded the alarm when the Imp began operations was ill that day.

Those who felt that the Imp might relent before the entertainment were disappointed. She was present, and Sister Ernesta was not. The nun's large empty chair was there, however, conspicuously placed at the end of the first row of Sisters, and Mercedes saw it as she stood with a band of little girls singing with glad hearts the class song, "In Heaven We Hope to Meet." The Imp went through her part of the exercise with suave self-possession. Nothing could have been more exemplary than her behavior. She was modest, graceful, conspicuously courteous to her associates. Every grace of manner she possessed, and they were many, was in evidence throughout the after noon. But there was absolutely no indication that she realized her melancholy position until one of the older pupils, in a brief address of affection for the Sisters, mentioned several by name, and at the close of her remarks glanced toward the empty chair.

"We feel a deep regret," she said, "that one of our beloved Sisters is not with us to-day, yet we give thanks that her absence is due to no failing of her health or strength. She has remained away as an expression of her affection for one of us, now here. We miss her very