9

“You do seem bent on destroying all my hopes,” said the younger nun, the bishop's sister, not for a moment leaving her side. “Just when I was beginning to think the worst might be over. Your temperature has gone down—you were running a fever all those weeks—and you seemed a little more yourself.”

Everyone in the house was delighted with her and quite uncondition-ally at her service. What happiness for them all that they had rescued her! The girl wanted to die; but the indications were that life had a stubborn hold on her. She began to take a little nourishment. Strangely, she continued to lose weight.

“Please let me be one of you,” she said to the nun, who was ecstatic at the prospect of a full recovery. “Then I can go on living. But not otherwise.”

“But you are so young and so pretty. How could you possibly want to become a nun?”

The bishop administered token orders, cutting a lock of hair and enjoining obedience to the five commandments.* Though she was not satisfied with these half measures, she was an unassertive girl and she could not bring herself to ask more.

“We shall go no further at the moment,” said the bishop, leaving for his mountain cell. “Do take care of yourself. Get your strength back.”