He looked at Tommy Dye for a moment with a returning smile, but the pity of it all put the humor aside.

“The doctor will be coming along in a moment—­ah, there he comes now!  I will ask him to go with you to see the Sisters.  I am sorry that I cannot turn back with you myself.  I should be glad to.”

It did not take long to state the case to the doctor, who readily agreed to do what the priest asked.  Tommy Dye was by this time so thoroughly cowed by the situation in which he thus found himself that he no longer resisted.  There was one uncertain instant when, seeing the Sisters appear in the door, he was undecided whether to run away or go on.  But he was afraid to flee, with the Sisters’ eyes upon him, and the doctor led him into the house.  The ladies had been frightened by the doctor’s unexpected and speedy return; but he soon quieted their fears, and made them happy by telling them the reason of his turning back.  Sister Teresa, the Lady Superior, keenly touched, quickly turned to Tommy Dye and he handed her the money in awkward haste.

“How good of you!  How generous—­how noble!  Ah, you don’t know how much good this will do,” she said, with her eyes full of tears.  “We thank you with all our hearts for ourselves and for the children.”

“Thank you,—­ma’am,” stammered Tommy Dye, scarlet, and almost dumb.

None of the many sins of which he had been suspected had ever made him feel nearly so uncomfortable as he felt now.  None of the many sins of which he had been convicted had ever made him look half so guilty as he looked now.

“You mustn’t call me ‘ma’am,’” said Sister Teresa.  “You must call me Sister, and Sister Elizabeth and Sister Angela are your sisters, too.  You must always think of us as your real sisters, and the little ones belong to you after this, as much as they do to us.  You must always remember that.  Will you come into the other room and see them?  Or I will fetch—­”

But Tommy Dye could not endure any more.  He turned with hardly a word, and fled in desperate haste.  The Sisters gazed after him in surprise, and with a good deal of alarm, until Paul Colbert told them about him, who and what he was, of his meeting with Father Orin, and the whole story of the money.

“The poor fellow,” said Sister Teresa, softly.  “We will pray that the gift may bring him some of the good that it will do the children.  Yes, we will hereafter remember him, also, in the prayers for our benefactors,” turning her gentle, smiling gaze on the young doctor.

And then he reddened almost as suddenly as Tommy Dye had done, and he likewise was hastening to make his escape when Sister Teresa called him back, to ask if he would not be passing Cedar House on the way home.  He said that he would, reddening again.  Whereupon the Sister begged as a favor, that he would stop at the door and tell Ruth to come on the next day, if possible, to look at the sewing which Sister Angela was doing for her.