But all consciousness of the tablet, the wine, or the kneeling Knight, appeared to have instantly faded from the Bishop"s mind. He lay back gazing dreamily at a banner which, for no apparent reason, stirred and wafted to and fro, as it hung from an oaken beam, high up among the rafters.
"Wherefore doth it waft?" murmured the Bishop, thereby adding greatly to the Knight"s alarm. "Wherefore?--Wherefore?--Wherefore doth it waft?"
"Drink this, Reverend Father," urged the Knight. "I implore you, my dear lord, raise yourself and drink."
"Methinks there must be a draught," mused the Bishop.
"Yea, truly," said the Knight, "of your famous Italian wine. Father, I pray you drink."
"Among the rafters," said the Bishop. But he sat up, took the goblet from the Knight"s hand, and slowly sipped its contents.
Almost at once, a faint tinge of colour shewed in his cheeks and on his lips; his eyes grew bright. He smiled at the Knight, as he placed the empty goblet on the table beside him.
"Ah, my dear Hugh," he said, extending his hand; "it is good to find you here. Let us continue our conversation, if you are sufficiently rested and refreshed. I have much to say to you."
In the reaction of a great relief, Hugh d"Argent seized the extended hand and fervently kissed the Bishop"s ring.
It was the reverent homage of a loyal heart. Symon of Worcester, as with a _Benedicite_ he graciously acknowledged it, suffered a slight twinge of conscience; almost as unusual an experience as the ebullition of temper. He took up the conversation exactly at that point to which it best suited him to return, namely, there where he had made the first false step.
"Therefore, my dear Hugh, I have now given you in detail the true history of the vision, making it clear that we owe it, alas! to earthly devotion, rather than to Divine interposition--though indeed the one may well be the means used by the other. It remains for us to consider, and to decide upon, the best line to take with Mora in order to safeguard most surely her peace of mind, and permanently to secure her happiness."
"I have considered, Reverend Father," said the Knight, simply; "and I have decided."
"What have you decided to do, my son?" questioned Symon of Worcester, in his smoothest tones.
"To make known to Mora, so soon as I return, the entire truth."
The Bishop cast his eyes upward, to see whether the banner still waved.
It did.
Undoubtedly there must be a current of air among the rafters.
"And what effect do you suppose such a communication will have, my son, upon the mind of your wife?"
"I am not called to face suppositions, Reverend Father; I am simply confronted by facts."
"Precisely, my son, precisely," replied the Bishop, pressing his finger-tips together, and raising them to his lips. "Yet even while dealing with causes, it is well sometimes to consider effects, lest they take us wholly unawares. Do you realise that, as your wife felt justified in leaving the Nunnery and wedding you, solely by reason of our Lady"s miraculously accorded permission, when she learns that that permission was not miraculous, she will cease to feel justified?"
"I greatly fear it," said the Knight.
"Do you yourself now consider that she was not justified?"
"Nay!" answered the Knight, with sudden vehemence. "Always, since I learned how we had been tricked by her sister, I have held her to be rightfully mine. Heaven knew, when she made her vows, that I was faithful, and she therefore still my betrothed. Heaven allowed me to discover the truth, and to find her--alive, and still unwed. To my thinking, no Divine p.r.o.nouncement was required; and when the Holy Father"s mandate arrived bringing the Church"s sanction, why then indeed naught seemed to stand between us. But Mora thought otherwise."
A tiny gleam came into the Bishop"s eyes; an exceedingly refined edition of the look of cunning which used to peep out of old Mary Antony"s.
"Have you ever heard tell, my son, that two negatives make an affirmative? Think you not that, in something the same way, two deceptions may make a truth. Mora was deceived into entering the Convent, and deceived into leaving it; but from out that double deception arises the great truth that she has, in the sight of Heaven, been all along yours. The first deception negatives the second, and the positive fact alone remains that Mora is wedded to you, is yours to guard and shield from sorrow; and those whom G.o.d hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
Hugh d"Argent pa.s.sed his hand across his brow.
"I trust the matter may appear thus to Mora," he said.
The banner still wafted, gently. The Bishop gave himself time to ponder whence that draught could come.
Then: "It will not so appear," he said. "My good Hugh, when your wife learns from you that she was tricked by Mary Antony, she will go back in mind to where she was before the spurious vision, and will feel herself to be still Prioress of the White Ladies."
"I have so felt her, since the knowledge reached me," agreed the Knight.
The efficacy of the soothing drug taken by the Bishop was strained to its utmost.
"And what then do you propose to do, my son, with this wedded Prioress?
Do you expect her to remain with you in your home, content to fulfil her wifely duties?"
"I fear," said the Knight sadly, "that she will leave me."
"And I am certain she will leave you," said the Bishop.
"It was largely this fear for the future which brought me at once to you, my lord. If Mora desires, as you say, to consider herself as she was, before she was tricked into leaving the Convent, will you arrange that she shall return, unquestioned, to her place as Prioress of the White Ladies of Worcester?"
"Impossible!" said the Bishop, shortly. "It is too late. We can have no Madonna groups in Nunneries, saving those carven in marble or stone."
To which there followed a silence, lasting many minutes.
Then the Knight said, with effort, speaking very low: "It is _not_ too late."
Instantly the keen eyes were searching his face. A line of crimson leapt to the Bishop"s cheek, as if a whip-lash had been drawn across it.
Presently: "Fool!" he whispered, but the word savoured more of pitying tenderness than of scorn. Alas! was there ever so knightly a fool, or so foolish a knight! "What was the trouble, boy? Didst find that after all she loved thee not?"
"Nay," said Hugh, quickly, "I thank G.o.d, and our Lady, that my wife loves me as I never dreamed that such as I could be loved by one so perfect in all ways as she. But--at first--all was so new and strange to her. It was wonder enough to be out in the world once more, free to come and go; to ride abroad, looking on men and things. I put her welfare first. . . . Nay, it was easy, loving her as I loved, also greatly desiring the highest and the best. Father, I wanted what you spoke of as the Madonna in the Home. Therefore--"twas I who made the plan--we agreed that, the wedding having of necessity been so hurried, the courtship should follow, and we would count ourselves but betrothed, even after reaching Castle Norelle, for just so many days or weeks as she should please; until such time as she herself should tell me she was wishful that I should take her home. But--each day of the ride northward had been more perfect than that which went before; each hour of each day, sweeter than the preceding. Thus it came to pa.s.s that on the very evening of our arrival at Mora"s home, after parting for the night at the door of her chamber, we met again on the battlements, where years before we had said farewell; and there, seated in the moonlight, she told me the wonder of our Lady"s grace in the vision; and, afterwards, in words of perfect tenderness, the even greater wonder of her love, and that she was ready on the morrow to ride home with me. So we parted in a rapture so deep and pure, that sleep came, for very joy of it. But early in the morning I was wakened by a rapping at my door, and there stood Brother Philip, holding your letter, Reverend Father."
"Alas!" said the Bishop. "Would that I had known she would have whereby to explain away thy memory of that which I had said."
Yet the Bishop spoke perfunctorily; he spoke as one who, even while speaking, muses upon other matters. For, within his secret soul, he was fighting the hardest temptation yet faced by him, in the whole history of his love for Mora.
By rapid transition of mind, he was back on the seat in the garden of the White Ladies" Nunnery, left there by Mary Antony while she went to fetch the Reverend Mother. He was looking up the sunny lawn toward the cloisters, from out the shade of the great beech tree. Presently he saw the Prioress coming, tall and stately, her cross of office gleaming upon her breast, her sweet eyes alight with welcome. And at once they were talking as they always talked together--he and she--each word alive with its very fullest meaning; each thought springing to meet the thought which matched it.
Next he saw himself again on that same seat, looking up the lawn to the sunlit cloisters; realising that never again would the Prioress come to greet him; facing for the first time the utter loneliness, the irreparable loss to himself, of that which he had accomplished for Hugh and Mora.
The Bishop"s immeasurable loss had been Hugh"s infinite gain. And now that Hugh seemed bent upon risking his happiness, the positions were reversed. Would not his loss, if he persisted, be the Bishop"s gain?
How easy to meet her on the road, a few miles from Worcester; to proceed, with much pomp and splendour, to the White Ladies" Nunnery; to bid them throw wide the great gates; to ride in and, then and there, reinstate Mora as Prioress, announcing that the higher service upon which the Holy Father had sent her had been duly accomplished. Picture the joy in the bereaved Community! But, above and beyond all, picture what it would mean to have her there again; to see her, speak with her, sit with her, when he would. No more loneliness of soul, no more desolation of spirit; and Mora"s conscience at rest; her mind content.
But at that, being that it concerned the woman he loved, the true soul of him spoke up, while his imaginative reason fell silent.
Never again could the woman who had told Hugh d"Argent, in words of perfect tenderness, the wonder of her love, and that she was ready on the morrow to ride home with him, be content in the calm of the Cloister.
If Hugh persisted in this folly of frankness and disturbed her peace, she might leave him.