"Do you go without any sign?" said she. "Is that the way you receive reproof and command?"
Sister Catherine knelt and kissed the ground at the superior's feet. Again I felt truly sorry for her. When she was gone, Mother turned to me.
"And you, minion, what is this I hear? Must you turn giglet on my hands? Let me hear what you have to say on this matter, and beware you tell me nothing but truth."
I felt my pride rising, but I put it down, and kneeling at her feet I laid the packet on her lap with the seal unbroken.
"From whom had you this?" she asked.
I told her from Mrs. Anne Bullen.
"And who sent it?" she asked again.
I told her that the hand was my cousin Richard's, and that Mrs. Bullen told me it came from him, but farther than that I did not know. I ventured to add that it had but just been placed in my hands when Sister Catherine came in. She looked at the packet, and her face relaxed as she saw the seals were unbroken.
"Rosamond," said she, laying her hand on my head, as I knelt before her, and speaking with great earnestness: "you were given me by your own mother, the dearest friend I ever had, and I have loved you like a daughter. I have ever found you open and true as the day, and I cannot but believe you so still, though appearances are against you. Tell me, as if you were speaking to the priest at confession. Is this the first time you have received packet or token from your cousin?"
"From my cousin, or any one else," I told her.