The bear snorted, dissent or commendation—it was all one.
“Ask her about her mother,” he growled.
“True,” said the lady, with a gesture of involuntary repulsion, for which she the moment after atoned with a caress.
“She had been a Sister in the Hospital of St. Magdalen, Father Pope tells me,” she said very low. “She had returned there to expiate her—her”—
“No,” I broke in.
“You told me so,” roared the priest.
“I didn’t,” I said, half crying. “You were looking at your book all the time I confessed.”
Madame Sophia could not restrain a smile.
“Fie, Father!” she said. “I admit it does not sound the least probable part of the child’s experiences.”
But she sobered again in a moment.