8

Confused, the nun ordered that the new messenger be shown in. He would shed light on the mystery. A very handsome and well-groomed boy came forward. Offered a cushion, he knelt deferentially beside the blind.

“I was ordered to deliver it personally.”

The bishop's sister took the note. “To the young lady who has re-cently become a nun,” and, with the bishop's signature, “From the moun-tain.” This time the girl was not permitted the excuse that the message was for someone else. She slipped deeper into the room and sat with her face averted.

“You are a quiet girl, and always have been,” said the nun; “but there is a limit.”

She looked at the bishop's letter. “The general came this morning and asked about you, and I told him everything. You have turned your back upon human affections and have chosen to live among mountain people. This I know. Yet I was disturbed to learn the facts, and have come to fear that, contrary to our intentions, what we have done might call down the wrath of the holy powers. We must be resigned to it; and now you must go back, surely and without hesitation, to the general, and dispel the clouds of sin brought on by tenacious affections. Draw comfort from the thought that a single day's retreat brings untold blessings. I shall myself go over the problem carefully with you. The lad who brings this can no doubt give you a general description of what has occurred.”

There was no trace of ambiguity in the letter, and yet it was worded so discreetly that an outsider would not immediately have guessed the meaning.

“Who is the boy?” asked the nun. “Must you go on keeping secrets from me even now?”

The girl looked out through the blind. It was the brother who had been especially on her mind that last terrible night at Uji. She had always thought him an impudent, arrogant, and generally unpleasant little urchin, but he had been a favorite of their mother's whom she had occasionally brought with her to Uji. Yes, they had been fond of each other in their childish way; but the memory was like a dream. She longed for news of her mother. She had in the course of events had word of others, but none at all of her mother. At the sight of the boy all the old sadness came back. Tears were streaming from her eyes.