d,
bright heralds of the rising sun.

Then from the Convent garden trilled softly the first notes, poignant
but passing sweet, of the robin's song.

CHAPTER XXV

MARY ANTONY RECEIVES THE BISHOP

The morning after the return from Rome of the Bishop's messenger, the
old lay-sister, Mary Antony, chanced to be crossing the Convent
courtyard, when there came a loud knocking on the outer gates.

Mary Antony, hastening, thrust aside the buxom porteress, and herself
opened the _guichet_, and looked out.

The Lord Bishop, mounted upon his white palfrey, waited without;
Brother Philip in attendance.

What a bewildering surprise! What a fortunate thing, thought old
Antony, that she should chance to be there to deal with such an
emergency.

Never did the Bishop visit the Nunnery, without sending a messenger
beforehand to know whether the Prioress could see him, stating the
exact hour of his proposed arrival; so that, when the great doors were
flung wide and the Bishop rode into the courtyard, the Prioress would
be standing at the top of the steps to receive him; Mother Sub-Prioress
in attendance in the background; the other holy ladies upon their knees
within the entrance; Mary Antony, well out of sight, yet where peeping
was possible, because she loved to see the Reverend Mother kneel and
kiss the Bishop's ring, rising to her feet again without pause, making
of the whole movement one graceful, deep obeisance. After which, Mary
Antony, still peeping, greatly loved to see the Prioress mount the
wide, stone staircase with the Bishop; each shewing a courtly deference
to the other.

(One of Mary Antony's most exalted dreams of heaven, was of a place
where she should sit upon a jasper seat and see the Reverend Mother and
the great Lord Bishop mounting together interminable flights of golden
stairs; while Mother Sub-Prioress and Sister Mary Rebecca looked
through black bars, somewhere down below, whence they would have a good
view of Mary Antony on her jasper seat, but no glimpse of the golden
stairs or of the radiant figures which she watched ascending.)

So much for the usual visits of the Bishop, when everything was in
readiness for his reception.

But now, all unexpected, the Bishop waited without the gate, and Mary
Antony had to deal with this emergency.

Crying to the porteress to open wide, she hastened to the steps. . . .
It was impossible to summon the Reverend Mother in time. . . . The
Lord Bishop must