"'Then I have been in prison nine years,' I said, 'and in that time I have not seen a human face more than three times, save when I was ill.'"
"'Poor thing, no wonder you are so sadly aged,' he said, 'but there will be an end of all that soon, and full time it was so.'"
"How long is it since you came here?" I asked, as she paused.
"Two years come next spring."
"Then you must have been sent away just before the convent was broken up."
"'Tis likely they found it convenient to get rid of me," she returned, a little bitterly. "But I bear them no malice. I have been pardoned too much myself not to forgive others. I had not said even the form of a prayer for years before I came here. I had lost all faith in the old religion, and I knew no other. But one day looking for something wherewith to divert myself, I found a Latin Bible. I read and read, and by degrees the light came to me, and the truth made me free."
"And what then, dear sister?"
"There is little more to tell," she answered. "His Grace was good enough to call me cousin before Martha, and bade her treat me with all respect. She is a good, faithful creature, and I love her as a sister. She grows infirm, and I fear may not last long. But I am old, too," she added, with a smile. "Loveday, the first time I looked into a mirror, I started back in affright. I did not know my own face."
I would have liked to ask her a hundred questions, but there was no more time. It was drawing toward sunset, and I had been told to be ready by nightfall. Denys helped me to finish my packing and to arrange securely the money and jewels I had about me, and I was soon all ready. As soon as it was dark, the same messenger who had brought the litter, appeared with two horses, and we took a last farewell of our woodland Patmos. Denys kissed and blessed me at parting.
"We shall never meet again, but I am most thankful to have seen your face once more," said she. "You were my first comforter, little Loveday, and if my prayers can call down blessings, you will not want them. Farewell, dear, precious child, till we meet in the Paradise above."