n had shone out. Tea
was the most comfortable meal that the household had taken together for
a fortnight.

"I haven't spent quite all that check I got from the _Harlow Weekly
News_," whispered Egbert to Ingred that evening, "and I'm going to buy
you a box of chocolates on Monday. I'll leave them for you at the
Hostel. You deserve them!"

"You mascot! I can't quite see that I _do_ deserve them, for I really
meant to rag you about that Abbey business. But I won't say 'No, thank
you!' to chocks! Rather not! We'll have a gorgeous little private feast
in No. 2 to-morrow night."

CHAPTER XVI

An Easter Pilgrimage

The thirteen weeks between Christmas and Easter dragged much more slowly
than those of the autumn term. The weather was cold and variable. As
fast as Spring stirred in the earth, Winter seemed to stretch forth
chilly fingers to check her advent. Nature, like a careful mother, kept
the buds tightly folded on the trees and the yellow daffodil blossoms
securely hidden under their green casement curtains. Only the most
foolhardy birds ventured to begin building operations. The rooks in the
elm trees near the Abbey had begun to repair their nests during a mild
spurt in January, then put off further alterations till late in March.
Morning after morning the girls would wake to find the roofs covered
with hoar frost. Ingred, who hated the cold, shivered as she crossed the
windy quadrangle from the college to the hostel, and congratulated
herself that she lived in the days of modern comforts.

"How the old monks and nuns managed to exist in those wretched chilly
damp cloisters I can't imagine," she said, as she squatted by the stove
warming her hands. "Were they allowed to take hot bricks to bed with
them in their cells? Think of turning out for midnight services into an
unwarmed church! It sounds absolutely miserable!"

"Perhaps they made themselves more comfortable than we think," commented
Verity. "One of them probably kept up the fire and doled out hot drinks
after the services. It might even have been possible to take a hot-water
bottle to church under the folds of those ample habits."

"I don't believe that would have been allowed. Surely the cold was part
of the discipline."

"I shouldn't have been a nun if I'd lived in the Middle Ages," said Fil.
"I'd have wanted to go to the tournaments and to have seen my knight
fighting with my ribbons in his helmet and bringing me the crown. Oh,
wouldn't it ha