Thus these three knelt, as a new day dawned.
And the Knight prayed: "Give her to me!"
And the Bishop prayed: "Guide her feet into the way of peace."
And the Prioress, with hands crossed upon her breast and eyes uplifted, said: "Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto Thee."
The silver streaks of the aurora paled before soaring shafts of gold, bright heralds of the rising sun.
Then from the Convent garden trilled softly the first notes, poignant but passing sweet, of the robin's song.
CHAPTER XXV
MARY ANTONY RECEIVES THE BISHOP
The morning after the return from Rome of the Bishop's messenger, the old lay-sister, Mary Antony, chanced to be crossing the Convent courtyard, when there came a loud knocking on the outer gates.
Mary Antony, hastening, thrust aside the buxom porteress, and herself opened the guichet, and looked out.