e in the Prior compelled him officially to avoid any
reprehension of this perfect monastic calm; but the human nature, which
in his case lay beneath it, was surprised and repelled.

"He has left a will, wherein you are fully provided for."

"Oh, that is nice!" said Mother Margaret, in tones of unquestionable
gratulation. "And how much am I to have? Of course I care about it
only for the sake of the Abbey."

The Prior had his private ideas on that point; for, as he well knew, the
vow of poverty was somewhat of a formality in the Middle Ages, since the
nun who brought to her convent a title and a fortune was usually not
treated in the same manner as a penniless commoner.

"The customary dower to a widow, Sister."

"Do you mean to say I am only to have my third? Well, I call that
shameful! And so fond of me as he always professed to be! I thought he
would have left me everything."

The Prior experienced a curious sensation in his right arm, which, had
Mother Margaret not been a woman, or had he been less of a Christian and
a Church dignitary, might have resulted in the measuring of her length
on the floor of the recreation-room. But she was totally unconscious of
any such feeling on his part. Her heart--or that within her which did
duty for one--had been touched at last.

"Well, I do call it disgraceful!" she repeated.

"And is that all?" asked the Prior involuntarily, and not by any means
in consonance with his duty as a holy priest addressing a veiled nun.
But priests and nuns have no business with hearts of any sort, and he
ought to have known this as well as she did.

"All?" she said, with a rather puzzled look in the frosty blue eyes. "I
would it had been a larger sum, Father; for the convent's sake, of
course."

"And am I to hear no word of regret, Sister, for the man to whom you
were all the world?"

This was, of course, a most shocking speech, considering the speaker and
the person whom he addressed; but it came warm from that inconvenient
heart which had no business to be beneath the Prior's cassock. Mother
Margaret was scandalised, and she showed it in her face, which awoke her
companion to the fact that he was not speaking in character. That a
professed nun should be expected to feel personal and unspiritual
interest in an extern! and, as if that were not enough, in a man!
Mother Margaret's sense of decorum was quite outraged.

"How could such thoughts trouble the blessed peace of a holy