The sisters conferred.
“It clears!” said Sister Rose. “He asks us have we broken the rules and looked at ourselves in a looking-glass.” She advanced toward Dr. McBean and spoke for the sisterhood with deep earnestness. “Oh, no, reverend Father, we have not seen our own reflections for fifty years, and more—oh, never! There never has been a mirror on the walls of La Merced. Vanity is not our sin. Thanks be to Our Lady, not even in the convent well have we looked to see our faces reflected. Oh, no!”
Dr. McBean caught a word here and there, and felt that he was being vehemently reassured about something, probably that the nuns would be grateful for his kindness; that the elderly virgins knew nothing whatever of such a thing as a camera, and had no idea of the use to which he put his black box, would have seemed so ridiculous that the possibility of it never occurred to him. With more bows, and renewed and halting thanks, he took his departure.
“To-morrow,” he called. “Mañana—I will bring the blue-prints—mañana. Adios! Gracias!”
The nuns watched his departure in silence, but as the sound of his tripping footsteps died away, they turned to one another excitedly.
“Tell me, you who have eyes—what was he like?” begged Eulalia.
The others turned to her pityingly.
“Thou shalt hear. We had forgotten thine affliction, poor sister. He is thin of the leg and round above. He wears glasses on a small nose. His eyes are blue, and his hands are beautiful and white, like the hands of Father Ignatius—the saints rest his soul! He wore black, with a cassock very short indeed; and a round white collar, and a gold cross hung at his waist. He bore a small black box, that doubtless contained a holy relic, for ofttimes he clasped it to his bosom and cared for it most lovingly.”
“How strange,” mused Eulalia, “that the reverend Fathers should send one to question us thus unannounced, and one who also speaks so strangely! His words were confusing, and I caught not often the sense, though I listened with all my ears. Had it not been for Sister Rose, I never should have guessed his mission.”
“Had’st thou seen him, thou would’st have known,” said Sister Teresa. “His calling was not to be mistaken; moreover, with the reliquary he blessed us.”