There they were, each with her wheel before her, spinning in silence.
The Abbess sat in the centre, immediately below the dial, with a book in her hand, and was turning the pages.
He could see a nun"s face steadily bent on her wheel--that was Dame Agnes who had fetched the cope for him in the morning. She seemed perfectly quiet and unaffected, watching her thread, and putting out a deft hand now and again to the machinery. Beside her sat another, whose face he remembered well; she had stammered a little as she gave her answers in the morning, and even as he looked the face twitched suddenly, and broke into tears. He saw the Abbess turn from her book and lay her hand, with a kind of tender decision on the nun"s arm, and saw her lips move, but the hum and rattle of the spinning-wheels was too loud to let him hear what she said; he saw now the other nun lift her face again from her hands, and wink away her tears as she laid hold of the thread once more.
Ralph had a strange struggle with himself that afternoon as he walked on in the pleasant autumn weather through meadow and copse. The sight of the patient women had touched him profoundly. Surely it was almost too much to ask him to turn away his own sister from the place she loved! If he relented, it was certain that no other Visitor would come that way for the present; she might at least have another year or two of peace.
Was it too late?
He reminded himself again how such things were bound to happen; how every change, however beneficial, must bring sorrow with it, and that to turn back on such work because a few women suffered was not worthy of a man. It was long before he could come to any decision, and the evening was drawing on, and the time for Vespers come and gone before he turned at last into the village to enquire for his servant.
The other men had seen nothing of Mr. Morris that day; he had not been back to the village.
A group or two stared awefully at the fine gentleman with the strong face and steady intolerant eyes, as he strode down the tiny street in his rich dress, swinging his long silver-headed cane. They had learnt who he was now, but were so overcome by seeing the King"s Commissioner that they forgot to salute him. As he turned the corner again he looked round once more, and there they were still watching him. A few women had come to the doors as well, and dropped their arched hands hastily and disappeared as he turned.
The convent seemed all as he had left it earlier in the afternoon, as he came in sight of it again. The high chapel roof rose clear against the reddening sky, with the bell framed in its turret distinct as if carved out of cardboard against the splendour.
He was admitted instantly when he rang on the bell, but the portress seemed to look at him with a strange air of expectancy, and stood looking after him as he went across the paved court to the door of the guest-house.
There was a murmur of voices in the parlour as he paused in the entry, and he wondered who was within, but as his foot rang out the sound ceased.
He opened the door and went in; and then stopped bewildered.
In the dim light that pa.s.sed through the window stood his father and Mary Maxwell, his sister.
CHAPTER V
FATHER AND SON
None of the three spoke for a moment.
Then Mary drew her breath sharply as she saw Ralph"s face, for it had hardened during that moment into a kind of blind obstinacy which she had only seen once or twice in her life before.
As he stood there he seemed to stiffen into resistance. His eyelids drooped, and little lines showed themselves suddenly at either side of his thin mouth. His father saw it too, for the hand that he had lifted entreatingly sank again, and his voice was tremulous as he spoke.
"Ralph--Ralph, my son!" he said.
Still the man said nothing; but stood frozen, his face half-turned to the windows.
"Ralph, my son," said the other again, "you know why we have come."
"You have come to hinder my business."
His voice was thin and metallic, as rigid as steel.
"We have come to hinder a great sin against G.o.d," said Sir James.
Ralph opened his eyes wide with a sort of fury, and thrust his chin out.
"She should pack a thousand times more now than before," he said.
The father"s face too deepened into strength now, and he drew himself up.
"Do you know what you are doing?" he said.
"I do, sir."
There was an extraordinary insolence in his voice, and Mary took a step forward.
"Oh! Ralph," she said, "at least do it like a gentleman!"
Ralph turned on her sharply, and the obstinacy vanished in anger.
"I will not be pushed like this," he snarled. "What right is it of yours to come between me and my work?"
Sir James made a quick imperious gesture, and his air of entreaty fell from him like a cloak.
"Sit down, sir," he said, and his voice rang strongly. "We have a right in Margaret"s affairs. We will say what we wish."
Mary glanced at him: she had never seen her father like this before as he stood in three quarter profile, rigid with decision. When she looked at Ralph again, his face had tightened once more into obstinacy. He answered Sir James with a kind of silky deference.
"Of course, I will sit down, sir, and you shall say what you will."
He went across the room and drew out a couple of chairs before the cold hearth where the white ashes and logs of last night"s fire still rested.
Sir James sat down with his back to the window so that Mary could not see his face, and Ralph stood by the other chair a moment, facing her.
"Sit down, Mary," he said. "Wait, I will have candles."
He stepped back to the door and called to the portress, and then returned, and seated himself deliberately, setting his cane in the corner beside him.
None of the three spoke again until the nun had come in with a couple of candles that she set in the stands and lighted; then she went out without glancing at anyone. Mary was sitting in the window seat, so the curtains remained undrawn, and there was a mystical compound of twilight and candle-light in the room.
She had a flash of metaphor, and saw in it the meeting of the old and new religions; the type of these two men, of whom the light of one was fading, and the other waxing. The candlelight fell full on Ralph"s face that stood out against the whitewashed wall behind.
Then she listened and watched with an intent interest.
"It is this," said Sir James, "we heard you were here--"
Ralph smiled with one side of his mouth, so that his father could see it.
"I do not wish to do anything I should not," went on the old man, "or to meddle in his Grace"s matters--"