Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the cloister.djvu/84

 will be up in the Commencement hall all afternoon, and you'll be on duty in these rooms. If they miss you from one, they'll think you're in one of the others. But they can't miss you, for we won't be gone much more than half an hour."

Sister Chrysostom turned and looked at me with her queer little smile. "How about the portress?" was all she said, but I felt as if she had poured ice-water over me. Of course the portress was the one big obstacle. There she stood, at the door, opening and shutting it and gazing through and through every one that came in and out. And if the last trump sounded, she wouldn't answer it until she had those doors locked and those keys tucked away just so.

As I said, the mention of her was chilling, but my blood was up, and I wasn't going to give in now. I set my teeth and went ahead. I said, very airily: "Oh, never mind the portress; I'll arrange about her," and then suddenly another inspiration came to me. Two "lucid moments" in the same day would have surprised Jack. They surprised me! I said: "Grace has a long black ulster that reaches to the floor. I'll bring it in a bundle to-morrow morning, with a black hat and gloves and a big black veil. It will all make a large