"Still, do it, dear Sister."
It was one of the general's wife's principles on commencing the conversation to speak with deference to her friend, though she was the younger of the two.
"These matins, these vespers, these masses! ... It will indeed be well with you up there." And she lifted her large green eyes to the ceiling.
This time also she did not omit the inevitable comedy, and taking Helene's arm, she drew her to her boudoir, where the sound of several voices was audible.
"Come, dear, I have absolute confidence in you."
The "lady bountiful," a friend of General Khlobestovsky, was already seated in the boudoir. Her goggle eyes and projecting jaws well adapted to frighten poor people, opened wide at Helene's arrival, and in a high-pitched voice, imitating a famous actress, she exclaimed with a sigh, "How happy I am! How delighted! Holy woman!" and then turning towards a young girl very simply dressed who was also smiling at the nun, said, "Ah, Sacha, how long have you been here?"
Sacha was a niece of the general, and had been taking a course of music lessons at Petrograd. When she saw her, Helene's face lighted up.
"My course was over a fortnight ago, and I took advantage of it to come home again."
"You would do much better," said the "benefactress," looking at Helene, "to follow her example than to follow your course; I tell her so in your presence, Sister, because I tell her so when you are not there to hear. To think that at your age, with your beauty, you have been able to go through such severe tests in order to overcome sin!"
"Why did you send for me?" Helene asked.