CHAPTER XXXI
"ADREA'S DIARY"
"Farewell to the dead ashes of life."
The path which I had been following led straight up to the bare, arched door of the building. I had reached it unmolested, and rang the bell.
What a hoarse, clanging sound! I shivered as I stood there listening to its gloomy echoes until they died away. No one came. The place seemed wrapped in an austere silence. I listened, but I could hear no sound within; only the dull, melancholy sighing of the wind amongst a sickly avenue of firs behind.
I stretched out my hand, and rang again. Almost before the echoes had died away I heard footsteps within. A heavy bolt was withdrawn, and a dark-robed monk stood on the threshold before me. He recoiled for a moment at seeing a woman, and I thought that he would have closed the door, but he did not.
"What would you have at this hour, sister?" he asked sternly. "The chapel is closed, and morning is the time for dispensing charity."
"I have come in search of a priest who is only a visitor here," I said. "Father Adrian he is called!"