Mere Esther held up her finger warningly to the nuns not to speak,
as she passed onward through the long corridors, dim with narrow
lights and guarded by images of saints, until she came into an open
square flagged with stones. In the walls of this court a door
opened upon the garden into which a few steps downwards conducted
them.
The garden of the monastery was spacious and kept with great care.
The walks meandered around beds of flowers, and under the boughs of
apple-trees, and by espaliers of ancient pears and plums.
The fruit had long been gathered in, and only a few yellow leaves
hung upon the autumnal trees, but the grass was still green on the
lawn where stood the great ash-tree of Mere Marie de l'Incarnation.
The last hardy flowers of autumn lingered in this sheltered spot.
In these secluded alleys the quiet recluses usually walked and
meditated in peace, for here man's disturbing voice was never heard.
But to-day a cluster of agitated nuns gathered around the great ash-
tree, and here and there stood groups of black and white veils; some
were talking, while others knelt silently before the guardian of the
house, the image of St.
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