n, and after having taken a bite at the inn I set out for a long
walk. It was simply impossible for me to talk about common things until
this matter was settled.

It was about the middle of the afternoon when I returned to the inn, and
Walkirk had not come back. I went away again, took a turn through the
woods, and on approaching the inn I saw him walking down the shady road
which led from the House of Martha. I hurried to meet him.

So soon as he was near enough, Walkirk, with a beaming face, called
out:--

"All right, sir. I have settled that little matter for you."

"How? What?" I exclaimed. "What have you done?"

We had now reached each other, and stood together by the side of the
road.

"Well," said my under-study, "I have seen Mother Anastasia, and I have
found her a very sensible woman,--an admirable woman, I assure you. She
was a good deal surprised when I told her my errand, for that was the
first she had heard of the love-story; in fact, I suppose your secretary
had not had time to tell her about it. She commended the sister highly
for her refusal to write it, saying that her action was in strict
accordance with the spirit of their rules. When she had finished saying
all she had to say on that point, I presented your side of the question;
and I assure you, sir, that I clapped on it a very bright light, so that
if she did not see its strong points the fault must be in her own eyes.
As the event proved, there was nothing the matter with her eyes. I shall
not try to repeat what I said, but I began by explaining to her the
nature of your work, and showed her how impossible it was for you to
write about foreign countries without referring to their people, and how
you could not speak of the people without mentioning their peculiar
manners and customs, and that this story was nothing more nor less than
an interweaving of some of the characteristics of the people of Sicily
with the descriptions of the country. Thus much I inferred from your
remarks about the story.

"I persisted that, although such characteristics had no connection with
the life of the sisters of the House of Martha, they were a part of the
world which you were describing, and that it could be no more harm for a
sister, working for wages and the good of the cause, to assist in that
description than it would be for one of them to make lace to be worn at
a wedding, a ceremony with which the sisters could have nothing to do,
and which in connecti