“Well, Hilda, come, tell me, have you said everything you have to say?  Have you given us your full reasons for not wishing Evelyn to take the veil if she should decide to do so?  I see you hesitate.  I asked you here to-night so that you might speak your mind.  Let everything be said.  There is no use telling me afterwards that you didn’t say things because you thought I wouldn’t like to hear them.  Say everything.”

Pressed by the Prioress, Mother Hilda admitted that she was concerned regarding the motive which actuated the Prioress and Mother Philippa.

“I include her.”

Mother Philippa looked up suddenly.  The Prioress smiled.

“My motive!” said Mother Philippa.

“Nothing is farther from my thought than to attribute a wrong motive to anybody, but I am not quite sure, dear Mother, that you would be as anxious for Evelyn to join our community if she had no money... and no voice.”

“Situated as we are, we cannot accept penniless women as choir sisters.  You know that well enough—­am I not right, Mother Philippa?”

And Mother Philippa agreed that no one could be admitted into the convent as a choir sister unless she brought some money with her.

“But you hold a different opinion, Hilda?”

“I understand that we cannot admit as a choir sister a woman who has no money; but that is quite different from admitting an opera singer because she has money and can sing for us.  It seems to me that nuns devoted to Perpetual Adoration should not yield themselves to money considerations.”

“Yield to money considerations—­no; but as long as we live upon earth, we shall live dependent upon money in some form or another.  Our pecuniary embarrassments—­you know all about them.  I need not refer to the mortgagee, who, at any moment, may foreclose.  Think of what it would be if this house were to be put up for sale, and we had all to return to our relations.  How many are there who have relations who would take them in?  And the lay sisters—­what would become of them and our duties towards them—­they who have worked for us all these years?  Sister Lawrence—­would you like to see her on the roadside, or carried to the workhouse?  Spiritual considerations come first, of course, but we must have a house to live in and a chapel to pray in.  Do you never think of these things, Hilda?”

“Yes, and I appreciate the anxiety our pecuniary difficulties cause you, dear Mother.  I am not indifferent, I assure you, but I cannot help feeling that anything were better than we should stop, instead of going forward, towards the high ideal—­”

“Well, Hilda, are you prepared to risk it?  We have a chance of redeeming the convent from debt—­will you accept the responsibility?”

“Of what, dear Mother?”

“Of refusing to agree that Evelyn shall be allowed to take the white veil, if she wishes to take it.”

“But taking the white veil will not enable us to get hold of her money.  We shall have to wait till she is professed.”