n up. Then she opposed everything I
wanted to do, and would listen to no reason, but I wouldn't listen to
her reasons either, and I was entirely too angry with her to think of
crying on her account. It was before that, that she made my very heart
sick, and all on your account."

"She was severe upon me, I suppose."

"Not a bit of it," said Sylvia, "if she had been severe, I should not
have minded it so much, but it was quite the other way. Now just put
yourself in my place and try to think how you would have felt about it.
Here was I, fixed and settled for life in the House of Martha, and here
were you, perfectly convinced--at least I was afraid you were
convinced--that there was nothing for you to do but to give me up, and
here was Marcia, just about to step out into the world a free woman, and
at the same time taking a most wonderful interest in you, and trying to
make you understand that you ought to let me alone, and all that sort of
thing."

"In which she did not succeed at all," I said.

"So it appears," said Sylvia, "but I couldn't be sure about that at the
time, you know, and if she had succeeded there was no earthly reason why
you should not have become as much interested in her as she was in you,
and then--but it's too dreadful to talk about; it used to make me fairly
boil."

"You mean to say," said I, "that you were jealous of your Cousin
Marcia."

"Yes," she answered, "there is no use in calling it by any other name; I
was jealous, savagely so, sometimes."

Now this was a very high compliment, and I did not fail to express my
satisfaction at having been the subject of such emotions. But one of the
results of Sylvia's communication was to remind me of the existence of a
loose end. I had never understood Mother Anastasia's feelings towards
me. It had been very interesting to me to make conjectures about those
feelings, and now that I could safely do more than conjecture I wished
to do more, and to find out, if possible, if there had been any reasons
for the construction I had placed upon the actions of the beautiful
Mother Superior. Of course this was of no real importance now, but one
cannot be brought into relations with such a woman as Marcia Raynor
without wanting to know exactly what those relations were.

I had far too much prudence, however, to talk on this subject with
Sylvia; if I talked with any one I must do it very cautiously. One
morning I called upon Miss Laniston. That lady was informe