n-time, this afternoon, Sister Amphyllis asked Mother
Alianora how long she had been professed.

"Forty-nine years," saith she, with her gentle smile.

I was surprised to hear it. She hath then been in the Order only five
years longer than I have.

"And how old were you, Mother?" saith Sister Amphyllis.

"Nineteen years," saith she.

"There must many an one have died since you came here, Mother?"

"Ay," quoth Mother Alianora, with a far-away look at the trees without.
"The oldest nun in all the Abbey, Sister Margery de Burgh, died the
month after I came hither. She remembered a Sister that was nearly an
hundred years old, and that had received the holy veil from the hand of
Saint Gilbert himself."

Sister Amphyllis crossed herself.

"Annora," saith Mother Alianora, "canst thou remember Mother Guendolen?"

What did I know about Mother Guendolen? Some faint, vague, misty
memories seemed to awake within me--an odd, incongruous mixture like a
dream--dark eyes like Margaret's, which told a tale, but this seemed a
tale of terror; and an enamelled cross, which had somewhat to do with a
battle and a queen.

"I scarcely know, Mother," said I. "Somewhat do I recall, yet what it
is I hardly know. Were her eyes dark, with an affrighted look in them?"

"They were dark," said Mother Alianora, "but the very peace of God was
in them. Ah, thou art mixing up two persons--herself and her cousin,
Mother Gladys. They were near of an age, and Mother Guendolen only
outlived Mother Gladys by one year: but they were full diverse manner of
women. Thou shouldst remember her, Annora. Thou wert a maiden of
fifteen when she died."

All at once she seemed to flash up before me.

"I do remember her, Mother, if it please you. She was tall, and had
very black hair, and dark flashing eyes, and she moved like a queen."

"I think of her," saith Mother Alianora, "rather as she was in her last
days, when those flashing eyes flashed no longer, and the queen was lost
in the saint."

"If it please you, Mother," I said, "had she not an enamelled cross that
she wore? I recollect something about it."

Mother Alianora smiled, somewhat amusedly.

"She had; and perchance thy memory runneth back to a battle over that
cross betwixt her and Sister Sayena, who laid plaint afore my Lady
Prioress that Mother Guendolen kept to herself an article of private
property, which should have gone into the treasury. It had been her
mother's, a marria