"Yes, sister," the lay sister answered, "I wish to deliver a message with which I am entrusted for our mother."
"Then enter this arbour, sister, and you will find her reposing there."
The lay sister entered the arbour, approached the Mother Superior, stopped modestly three paces from her, folded her arms on her breast, looked down respectfully, and waited till she was spoken to.
"What do you desire, daughter?" the Mother Superior asked her.
"Your blessing, in the first place, holy mother," the lay sister answered.
"I can give it you, daughter; and now what message have you for me?"
"Holy mother, a gentleman of lofty bearing, called Don Serapio de la Ronda, wishes to speak with you privately; the sister porter took him into the parlour, where he is waiting for you."
"I will be with him directly, daughter; tell the sister porter to apologize in my name to the gentleman, if I keep him waiting longer than I like, owing to my advanced age. Go on, I follow you."
The lay sister bowed respectfully to the abbess, and went away to deliver the message with which she was entrusted. The abbess rose, and the two girls sprang forward to support her; but she stopped them.
"Remain here till the Oración, my children," she said to them, "converse together; but be prudent, and do not let yourselves be surprised; after the Oración, you will come and converse in my cell."
Then after giving Doña Anita a parting kiss, the Mother Superior went away, sorely troubled in mind at this visit from a man she did not know, and whose name she now heard for the first time. When she entered the parlour, the abbess examined with a hasty glance the person who asked to see her, and who, on perceiving her, rose from his chair, and bowed to her respectfully. This first glance was favourable to the stranger, in whom the reader has doubtless already recognized Valentine Guillois.
"Pray resume your seat, caballero," the abbess said to him, "if your conversation is to last any time, we shall talk more comfortably when sitting."
Valentine bowed, offered the lady a chair, and then returned to his own.
"Señor Don Serapio de la Ronda was announced to me," the lady continued after a short silence.
"I am that gentleman, madam," Valentine said courteously.