Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/78

 the convent hall, and I followed her. She looked almost annoyed when I stopped her, for she must have been very busy, but my first words made her attentive enough. When I said "Sister Chrysostom, I want to tell you that the 'Bannerton Troubadours' are in town," her whole face changed. Usually she was so calm you couldn't imagine anything could shake her, and her lips had a queer little curl to them that was almost sarcastic. We girls dreaded it. We used to see it coming and change the subject, whatever it was. We knew we'd made some break. But when I mentioned the "Bannerton Troubadours" I felt as if I had never really seen Sister Chrysostom before; it was as if she had dropped a mask. First she was excited, and her eyes shone and she drew a long breath. Then over her whole face came the sweetest, softest, dearest expression, and her eyes looked as Grace's do sometimes when she's watching her little boy and thinks no one sees her. I could have hugged her—Sister Chrysostom, I mean—but she didn't give me a chance. She caught my hand and drew me into a music-room that happened to be empty, and she closed the door and stood with her back to it. Then she said, "Now tell me all you know about it, quickly."