Volume Ii Part 34 (2/2)
”Augustina!--it is the relic--from the Carmelite nuns. I recognise their Confessor.”
Augustina clasped her hands; and Sister Rosa, obeying Helbeck's signal, came quickly over to her. Mr. Helbeck bared his head and walked over the gra.s.s to meet the strange priest, who was carrying a small leather box.
Soon there was a happy group round Augustina's couch. The Confessor who had brought this precious relic of St. John of the Cross had opened the case, and placed the small and delicate reliquary that it contained in Mrs. Fountain's hands. She lay clasping it to her breast, too weak to speak, but flushed with joy. The priest, a southern-eyed kindly man, with an astonis.h.i.+ng flow of soft pietistic talk, sat beside her, speaking soothingly of the many marvels of cure or conversion that had been wrought by the treasure she held. He was going on to hold a retreat at a convent of the order near Froswick, and would return, he said, by Bannisdale in a week's time, to reclaim his charge. The nuns, he repeated with gentle emphasis, had never done such an honour to any sick person before. But for Mr. Helbeck's sister nothing was too much. And a novena had already been started at the convent. The nuns were praying--praying hard that the relic might do its holy work.
He was still talking when there was a step and a sound of low singing behind the beech hedge. The garden was so divided by gigantic hedges of the eighteenth century, which formed a kind of Greek cross in its centre, that many different actions or conversations might be taking place in it without knowing anything one of the other. Laura, who had been away for an hour, was not aware that Augustina was in the garden till she came through a little tunnel in the hedge, and saw the group.
The priest looked up, startled by the appearance of the young lady. Laura had marked the outburst of warm weather by the donning of a white dress and her summer hat. In one hand she held a bunch of lilac that she had been gathering for her stepmother; in the other a volume of a French life of St. Theresa that she had taken an hour before from Augustina's table.
In antic.i.p.ation of the great favor promised her by the Carmelite nuns, Augustina had been listening feebly from time to time to her brother's reading from the biography of the greatest of Carmelite saints and founders.
”Laura!” said Mrs. Fountain faintly.
Helbeck's expression changed. He bent over his sister, and said in a low decided voice, ”Will you give me the relic, dear? I will return it to its case.”
”Oh, no, Alan,” she said imploringly. ”Laura, do you know what those kind dear nuns have done? They have sent me their relic. And I feel so much better already--so relieved!” Mrs. Fountain raised the little case and kissed it fervently. Then she held it out for Laura to see.
The girl bent over it in silence.
”What is it?” she said.
”It is a relic of St. John of the Cross,” said the priest opposite, glancing curiously at Miss Fountain, ”It once belonged to the treasury of the Cathedral of Seville, and was stolen during the great war. But it has been now formally conveyed to our community by the Archbishop and Chapter.”
”Wasn't it kind of the dear nuns, Laura?” said Augustina fervently.
”I--I suppose so,” said Laura, in a low embarra.s.sed voice. Helbeck, who was watching her, saw that she could hardly restrain the shudder of repulsion that ran through her.
Her extraordinary answer threw a silence on the party. The tears started to the sick woman's eyes. The priest rose to take his leave. Mrs.
Fountain asked him for an absolution and a blessing. He gave them, coldly bowed to Laura, shook hands with Sister Rosa, and took his departure, Helbeck conducting him.
”Oh, Laura!” said Mrs. Fountain reproachfully. The girl's lips were quite white. She knelt down by her stepmother and kissed her hand.
”Dear, I wouldn't have hurt you for the world! It was something I had been reading--it--it seemed to me horrible!--just for a moment. Of course I'm glad it comforts you, poor darling!--of course--of course, I am!”
Mrs. Fountain was instantly appeased--for herself.
”But Alan felt it so,” she said restlessly, as she closed her eyes--”what you said. I saw his face.”
It was time for the invalid to be moved, and Sister Rosa had gone for help. Laura was left for a moment kneeling by her stepmother. No one could see her; the penitence and pain in the girl's feeling showed in her pallor, her pitiful dropping lip.
Helbeck was heard returning. Laura looked up. Instinctively she rose and proudly drew herself together. Never yet had she seen that face so changed. It breathed the sternest, most concentrated anger--a storm of feeling that, in spite of the absolute silence that held it in curb, yet so communicated itself to her that her heart seemed to fail in her breast.
A few minutes later Miss Fountain, having gathered together a few scattered possessions of the invalid, was pa.s.sing through the chapel pa.s.sage. A step approached from the hall, and Helbeck confronted her.
”Miss Fountain--may I ask you a kindness?”
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