“She certainly should.  I grant you Evelyn is a naturally pious woman, and that counts for a great deal; but what I attach importance to is that she is still alien to the convent, knowing hardly anything of our rule, of our observances.  A novice spends six months in the novitiate with me learning obedience, how to forget herself, how she is merely an instrument, and how the greatest purpose of her life is to obey.”

“It is impossible to overestimate the value of obedience, but there are some—­I will not say who can dispense with obedience, of course not, but who cannot put off their individualities, who cannot become the merely typical novice—­that one who would tell you, if she were asked to describe the first six months of her life in the convent, that all she remembered was a great deal of running up and down stairs.  There are some who may not be moulded, but who mould themselves; and they are not the worst, sometimes they are the best nuns.  For instance, Sister Mary John—­who will doubt her vocation?  And yet there is not a more headstrong nun in our community.  I don’t wish to say one word against Sister Mary John, who is an example to us all; it is only to answer your objection that I mentioned her.”

“Sister Mary John is quite different,” Mother Hilda answered.  And, after waiting some moments for Mother Hilda to continue, the Prioress said: 

“You would wish her, then, to spend some time longer with you in the novitiate?”

“I am not sure it would be of any use.  There is another matter about which I hardly like to speak; still, I must remind you that the convent has never been the same since she came here.  She has not been herself since she came back from Rome, but now she is regaining herself, and you cannot have failed to notice that both Sister Mary John and Veronica are drawn towards her.  I am sure they are not aware of it, and would resent my criticism as unjust.  Not only Sister Mary John and Veronica, but all of us; it seems to me that we all talk too much about her...  I am sometimes almost glad that she is so little in the novitiate.  Her influence on such simple-minded young women as Sister Jerome and Sister Barbara must be harmful—­how could it be otherwise, coming out of another world? and her voice, too—­you don’t agree with me?” And Mother Hilda turned to Mother Philippa.  Mother Philippa shook her head, and confessed she had not the slightest notion of what Mother Hilda meant.

“But you have, dear Mother?”

“Yes, I know very well what you mean, only I don’t agree with you.  Her singing, of course, gives her an exceptional position in the convent, but I don’t think she avails herself of it; indeed, her humility has often seemed to me most striking.”

“In that I agree with you,” Mother Hilda answered; “so I feel that perhaps, after all, I may be misjudging her.”

At this concession the Prioress’s manner softened at once towards the Mistress of the Novices.