"Why don't you make me
your confidante? In that case, I might decide whether or not it would be
proper to give you the address."
"Impossible," I said,--"that would be impossible."
Miss Laniston's eyes were of a blue gray, and very fine ones, and she
fixed them upon me with a lively intentness.
"Do you still hope," she asked, "to marry Sylvia Raynor? Surely you must
know that is impossible. She is now a member for life of the
sisterhood."
"I know all that," I replied impatiently. "It is not about that matter
that I wish to see the Mother Superior."
"Is it then about Mother Anastasia herself? Do you wish to marry her?"
I sprang to my feet in my excitement. "Why do you speak to me in that
way," I exclaimed, "and about a woman who is at the head of a religious
institution, and whose earthly existence is devoted to it?"
"Not at all," quietly answered the lady. "Mother Anastasia is not a life
member of the sisterhood of the House of Martha."
At these words my blood began to boil within me in a manner which I
could not comprehend. My eyeballs seemed to burn, as I stood and gazed
speechlessly at my companion.
"You take such an interest in these sisters," she said, "that I supposed
you knew that Mother Anastasia joined the sisterhood only for a term of
years, now nearly expired.
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