Part 10 (2/2)
”On that day a little later, when I looked down and you looked up with big eyes that begged for love, I knew that we had found each other. And we have never lost each other since, I think?”
She smiled radiantly into the loving eyes.
”Never, my Mother. But if we did ... if we are ever to be estranged or parted, it would be better ... oh! it would be better if you had pa.s.sed by in the waggon, and left me lying, and the aasvogels and the wild-dogs had done the rest.”
The Mother-Superior said, loosening the clinging arms, and speaking sternly:
”Never, my daughter. You do gravely wrong to say so. Holy Baptism has been yours, and Confirmation, and you have shared with His Faithful in the Body of Christ.... Never let me hear you say that again!”
”Mother, I promise you, you never shall. But I had a dream last night that was most vivid and strange and awful. It has haunted me ever since.”
The Mother-Superior started, for she also had had a strange dream. Of that vision had been born the written letter that now lay under the quartz paper-weight--the letter that was to be sent, with others, by the next English mail that should go out from Gueldersdorp, which said mail, being intercepted by the Boers, was not for many months to reach its destination. Supposing it had, this story need never have been written, or else another would have been written in its place.
”Dear heart, I do not think that it is good or useful to brood upon such things, or to relate them. And the Church forbids us to take account of mere dreams, or in any way be swayed by them.”
”That has always puzzled me. Because, you know ... supposing St. Joseph had refused to credit a dream?...”
”There are dreams and dreams, my dear. And the heavenly visions of the Saints are not to be confounded with our trivial subconscious memories.
Besides, sweets and fruits and pastry consumed in the seniors' dormitory at night are not only an infringement of school rules, but an insult to the digestion.”
”Mother, how did you find out?” cried Lynette. There was something very like a dimple in the bleached olive of the sweet worn cheek, lurking near the edge of the close coif, and a twinkle of laughter in the deep grey eyes that you thought were black until you had learned better.
”Well, though you may not find it easy to believe, I was once a girl at a boarding-school, and I possibly remember how we usually celebrated a breaking-up. There is the was.h.i.+ng-bell; the pupils' tea-bell will ring directly; you must hurry, or you will be late. One moment. What of this unpleasant incident that took place during the afternoon walk yesterday?
Sister Cleophee and Sister Francis-Clare have not given me a very definite account.”
Lynette's fair skin flushed poppy-red.
”Mother, they hooted us on the road to the Recreation Ground.”
Upon the great brows of the Mother-Superior sat the majesty of coming tempest. Her white hand clenched, her tone was awfully stern:
”Who were 'they'?”
”Some drunken Boers and store-boys--at least, I think they were drunk--and some Dutch railway-men. They cried shame on the Dutch girls for learning from vile English idolaters. Then more men came up and joined them. They threw stones, and threatened to duck Sister Cleophee and the two other Sisters in the river. And they might have tried to, though we senior girls got round them--at least, some of us did--and said they should try that on us first----”
”That was courageous.”
”We”--Lynette laughed a little nervously--”we were awfully frightened, all the same.”
”My dear, without fear there would have been no courage. Then I am told an English officer interposed?”
”He was coming from the direction of the Hospital--a tall thin man in Service khaki, with a riding-sjambok under his arm. But it would have been as good as a sword if he had used it on those men. When he lifted it in speaking to them they huddled together like sheep.”
”You have no idea who he was, of course?”
”I do not know his name, but I heard one of the Boers say, 'That slim duyvel with the sjambok is the new Military Commandant.' Another officer was with him, much younger, taller, and with fair hair. He----”
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