The abbess, pale as death, said not a word, but left the unnerved sister to the care of Salome, and went out to see what had really happened.
She met the little Sister Felecitie in the passage.
"What is all this, my daughter?" she inquired, in a very low voice.
"They have taken him into the refectory, madam. That was the nearest to the gate, where it happened. It happened just outside the south gate, madam. They took off a leaf of the gate, and laid him on it and brought him in," answered the trembling little novice, rather incoherently.
"Daughter, I have often admonished you that you must not address me as 'madam,' but as 'mother.'"
"I beg your pardon, holy mother; but I was so frightened, I forgot."
"Now tell me quickly, and clearly, what happened near the south gate?"
"Oh, madam!—holy mother, I mean!—the suicide! the suicide!"
"The suicide! It was not an accident, then, but a suicide?" exclaimed the abbess, aghast, and pausing in her hurried walk toward the refectory.
"Oh, madam—holy mother!—yes, so they say! It is enough to kill one to see it all!"