The other nuns wept, because Mother Sub-Prioress wept.
The sobbing became embarrassing in its completeness. Wheresoever the
Bishop looked he was confronted by a weeping nun.
Suddenly Mother Sub-Prioress dried her eyes, holding herself once more in control. It had just occurred to her that the Bishop's word could not be taken against the evidence of all their senses! On that very morning, at five o'clock the Convent call to rise had been rung from within the Prioress's cell!
So Mother Sub-Prioress dried her eyes, punished her nose for sharing in the general breakdown, and looking with belligerent eye at the Bishop, said: "If the Reverend Mother be not within her cell, perhaps it will please you, my lord, to inform the Convent who is within it!"
"That point," said the Bishop, "can speedily be settled."
He took from his girdle the Prioress's master-key, handed over to him before he left Warwick.
Fitting it into the lock, he opened the door of the cell, and entered, followed by the Sub-Prioress and a crowd of palpitating, eager nuns.
A few paces from the door the Bishop paused, signing to Mother Sub-Prioress to come forward, but restraining, with uplifted hand, those who pressed in behind her.
The chamber was very still.
The chair of the Prioress was empty.