In the passage Sister Mary John came unexpectedly upon Evelyn returning from the novitiate.

“Well, I have got through my Latin lesson, and Mother Hilda is delighted at my progress.  She flatters herself on her instruction, but any progress I have made is owing to you....  But what is the matter, Sister?  Why do you move away?” Evelyn put her hand on the nun’s shoulder.

“Don’t, Sister; I must go.”

“Why must you go?”

“Teresa, try to think—­” She was about to say “of God, and not of me,” but her senses seemed to swoon a little at that moment, and she fell into Evelyn’s arms.

“Teresa!  Teresa!  What is this?”

It was the Prioress coming from her room.

“A sudden giddiness, Mother,” the nun answered.

“Just as I was telling her of my Latin lesson in the novitiate, that I could learn Latin with her better than with Mother Hilda.”

“We met in the passage,” Sister Mary John said, moving away.

“And a sudden giddiness came over her,” Evelyn explained.

“Teresa, Sister Cecilia, who is our sacristan, is a little slow; she wants help, you are just the one to help her, and come with me.”

XXVIII

And Evelyn followed the Prioress into a fragrance of lavender and orris-root; she was shown the vestments laid out on shelves, with tissue-paper between them.  The most expensive were the white satin vestments, and these dated from prosperous times; and she was told how once poverty had become so severe in the convent that the question had arisen whether these vestments should be sold, but the nuns had declared that they preferred bread and water, or even starvation, to parting with their vestments.

“These are for the priest,” the Prioress said, “these are for the deacon and subdeacon, and they are used on Easter Sundays, the professed days of the Sisters, and the visits of the Bishop; and these vestments with the figure of Our Lady, with a blue medallion in the centre of the cross, are used for all feasts of the Virgin.”

On another shelf were the great copes, in satin and brocade, gold and white, with embroidered hoods and orphries, and veils to match; and the processional banners were stored in tall presses, and with them, hanging on wire hooks, were the altar-curtains, thick with gold thread; for the high altar there were curtains and embroidered frontals, and tabernacle hangings, and these, the Prioress explained, had to harmonise with the vestments; and the day before Mass for the Dead the whole altar would have to be stripped after Benediction and black hangings put up.

“Cecilia will tell you about the candles.  They have all to be of equal length, Teresa, and it should be your ambition to be economical, with as splendid a show as possible.  No candle should ever be allowed to burn into its socket, leaving less than the twelve ordained by the Church for Exposition.”