"No, I am going to her."
"Oh!" ejaculated the lady, and there was a pause in the conversation. "It does not strike me," she said presently, "that I have any authority to tell gentlemen where to find Mother Anastasia, but I can telegraph and ask her if she is willing that I shall send you to her."
This proposition did not suit me at all. I was quite sure that the Mother Superior would not consider it advisable that I should come to her, and would ask me to postpone my communication until she should return to Arden. But Arden, as I had found, would be a very poor place for the long and earnest interview which I desired.
"That would not do," I answered; "she would not understand. I wish to see her on an important matter, which can be explained only in a personal interview."
"You excite my curiosity," said Miss Laniston. "Why don't you make me your confidante? In that case, I might decide whether or not it would be proper to give you the address."
"Impossible," I said,—"that would be impossible."
Miss Laniston's eyes were of a blue gray, and very fine ones, and she fixed them upon me with a lively intentness.
"Do you still hope," she asked, "to marry Sylvia Raynor? Surely you must know that is impossible. She is now a member for life of the sisterhood."
"I know all that," I replied impatiently. "It is not about that matter that I wish to see the Mother Superior."
"Is it then about Mother Anastasia herself? Do you wish to marry her?"