The novice rose to her feet.
After a very little conversation, Mère Thérèse looked towards Frances, who said instantly:
“Is it time for me to go, ma Mère?”
“I fear so, my child. You know that there is a grand toilette to be made to-day. But you will return to ces dames at once after the ceremony, and remain until they go.”
“Oh, thank you,” breathed Rosamund, gazing at her sister.
Mère Thérèse looked at the two faces, so singularly alike in colouring and outline. “C’est gentil,” she said gently to Lady Argent, “deux sœurs qui s’aiment si bien.”
Then Frances went quietly out of the parlour and upstairs again.
She was aware that tears were very near her eyes, and that she understood why some of the novices had said: “Ah! les familles, un jour de prise d’habit——” and had left the sentence unfinished except for an ominous shake of the head.
But she was also deeply and ardently thankful.
Nothing was changed between her and Rosamund. She thought with compassionate amazement of a prise d’habit she had seen during her first week in the novitiate, when the novices had been asked to pray especially for their companion because her father and mother, non-Catholic, had refused to come to the ceremony or to send any token of forgiveness to the daughter who had taken her own way at the bidding of her conscience, and in defiance of her parents.