"Ah, poor maid," she said, "but Sister Avice will
soon heal her."
At the deeply ornamented round archway of the inner gate to the
cloistered court stood the Lady Abbess, at the head of all her
sisters, drawn up in double line to receive the Countess, whom they
took to their refectory and to their chapel.
Of this, however, Grisell saw nothing, for she had been taken into
the arms of a tall nun in a black veil. At first she shuddered and
would have screamed if she had been a little stronger and less tired,
for illness and weakness had brought back the babyish horror of
anything black; but she felt soothed by the sweet voice and tender
words, "Poor little one! she is fore spent. She shall lie down on a
soft bed, and have some sweet milk anon."
Still a deadly feeling of faintness came upon her before she had been
carried to the little bed which had been made ready for her. When
she opened her eyes, while a spoon was held to her lips, the first
thing she saw was the sweetest, calmest, most motherly of faces bent
over her, one arm round her, the other giving her the spoon of some
cordial. She looked up and even smiled, though it was a sad
contorted smile, which brought a tear into the good sister's eyes;
but then she fell asleep, and only half awoke when the Countess came
up to see her for the last time, and bade her farewell with a kiss on
her forehead, and a charge to Sister Avice to watch her well, and be
tender with her.
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