By What Authority?

Mistress Corbet. "Will you bring the key

lked on by the private path to the churchyard gate. Mary's face was set in a kind of fury, an

cap, and carried the keys. His little scholarly face, with a sharp curved nose like a beak, and dark eyes set rather too close together, was not unlike a bird's; an

orbet?" he said,

owed t

church, I should say perhaps; that

anged her tactics; and a genial, good-humoured look came over her face; but Isabel, who glan

the porch door, Mary surve

your bishops, or whatever you call them, allow th

hat he was a Catholic priest, practically; though the word minister was more commonly used; and that it was the old Chu

e the same Church, or why should we poor Catholics be so

the Pope was one of the

o sharp for me," said

ch; and Mary began immedia

uperstition, too. And where is the old altar? Is that broken, too? And is that a superstition, too? What a number there must have been! And the holy water, too, I see. But that looks a very nice table up there you have instead. Ah! And I see you read the new prayers

isle now. Mr. Dent had to explain that t

e? I suppose so. But how strange to break them all! Unless they are superstitions, too? I thought Protestants believed in them; but I see I was wr

l entrance, bending down, it seemed, in an agony of devout sorrow and shame; and kissed with a gentle, lingering reverence the g

he great east window, cracked and flawed with stones and poles. The Puritan boy a

her eyes seemed bright with te

t a slender be-ringed hand to him, "but-but you know-for I think perhaps you

chancel and looked

na, Mistress Corbet

occupied by an altar-tomb with Sir Nicholas' parents lying in black stone upon it. Old Sir James held his right gauntlet in his left hand, and with his right hand held the right hand of his wife, which was c

y, of course?" sai

nfessed that

st gone; but-but-forgive me, sir, the money is here still? But

entrance again she turned a

is gone. Then, in God's name what is left?" And h

ristian kindness is left,

cross stood; standing there was the same tall, slender woman whose back they had seen through the window, and who now stood eyeing Mary with half-dropped lids. Her face was very white, with hard lines from nose

o scold from over the churchyard wall, and they heard

again," said Ant

ster Anthony?" said Mistress Corb

" said the lad, "the

o love her," sa

know what she said-" and then

ics, I suppose," said Mary,

n eagerly. "The Rector would be well enoug

esay. Well, you know I cannot bear to see these old churches-wel

and Mary went on, and through the Hall straight into the Italian

y the housekeeper," she explained

Lady Maxwell's chair, and began to turn it over idly while s

Mary. "The Rector showed it to me. Wha

d. They can hardly bear to enter it now. You know that Sir Nicholas' father and grandfather are buried in the Maxwell chapel; and it w

a little absently, as she t

Margaret

ks there," she said. "It is

beginning, but only found

nged to a nunn

Margaret, tranquill

at her in

ut," sh

some went to France; but, at last, under circumstances that I need not trouble you wi

said your offices?" M

course because you are one of us, and because you have a faithful heart." Mistr

ne of your boo

least to take it away with me. M

gain, and began

r handwriting, Mi

I first entered religion in 1534; so you see the hand

arming," cried Mary

, my dea

y r

est, O Lord,

oul with spir

say, O mercy

ection art i

ide all oth

ee feel all

easures, thou

e shrift, pard

mbled a littl

of Dan John Lydgate, I thi

," said Mary in

will, I pray

lfil with perfe

ne ill, Jesu f

ver to spill, Je

t," said Mistress Margaret. "It

Corbet, suddenly laying down

. Sometimes in the Greater Silence, when we had spoken no word nor heard one except in God's praise, it used to seem that if we could but be silent a little longer, an

y softly, "that, tha

sitting in the nymph-hay sometimes on a day like this, as we were allowed to do; with just tall thin trees like poplars and cypresses round us: and the stream running through the long grass; and the birds, and t

estless movements were still for once; and her qui

I love to hear you talk

wear on the Great Festivals; and left us. He turned me out, too; and another who asked to go, but I went back for a while. And then, my dear, although we offered everything; our cows and our orchard and our hens, and all we had, you know how it ended; and one morning in May old Mr. Wickham said mass for us quite early, before the sun was risen, for the last time; and,-and he cried, my dear, at the elevation; and-and we were all

ady finished: and she put out her white slender hand,

ong while; but I knew you would understand. My dear,

smiled a lit

und me out?" she

our has found you out-or at l

n was like all the rest, always trying to turn the whole world int

un too?" she asked, with just

seem to have a vocation for that, but I should think that our Lord means

hat to say; and took up the leather book again and began to turn over the pages. Mistress Margaret went on

said Mary in a minute or two, leaning bac

nd a good deal of our time in embroidery. That is where I learnt this," and she held out her work to Mary for a moment. It was an exquisite piece of needlework, representin

?" she asked, look

with it.-"It is the soul, you see, desiring and fleeing to God, while the things of the world hold her back. Well, you see, it is difficult

"is it really true

d working a moment

inning. Not one stall was empty; not even old Dame Gertrude, who died when I was a novice, was lacking, and Mr. Wickham made us a sermon after the creed, and showed us the crucifix back in its place again; and told us that we were all good children, and that Our Lord had only sent us away to see if we would be patient; and that He was now pleased with us, and had

, indeed, living for those who could bear it, for the sake of the eternal reward; but it had scarcely even occurred to her t

g down the steps into the garden; and at her s

world that was in such danger of extinction in her soul. It cost the old lady a great effort to break through her ordinary reserve, but she judged that Mary could only be reached on her human side, and that there were not many of her friends whose human sympathy would draw her in the right direction. It is strange, sometime

sters now, those who had sat with her in the same sombre habits in the garth, with the same sunshine in their hearts? Some she knew, and thanked God for it, were safe in glory; others were old like her, but still safe in Holy Religion in France where as yet there was peace and sanctuary for the servants of the Most High; one or two-and for these she lifted up her heart in petition as she sat-one or two had gone back to the world, relinquished everything, and died to grace. Then the old faces one by one passed before her; old Dame Agnes with her mumbling lips and her rosy cheeks like wrinkled apples, looking so fresh and wholesome in the white linen about her face; and then the others one by one-that white-faced, large-eyed sister who had shown such passionate devotion at first that they all thought that God was going to raise up a saint amongst them-ah! God help her-she had sunk back at the dissolution, from those heights of sanctity towards whose summits she had set her face, down into the muddy to

and their movements and their ways of doing and speaking. Ah! well, please God, some day her dream would really come true; and they shall all be gathered again from France and England with their broken hearts me

sed in the midst of Paradise; and she knew nothing of where she was nor of what was happening round her, until Mary Corbet said that it was time for the horses to be round, and that she must go a

il the other two disappeared

, sister," she said,

ell nodde

other, "and our Lord no doubt will f

y the gentle little sound of the

Margaret," sai

he dust of the white roads, and his face crimson with hard riding. Sir Nicholas stood there as if dazed, and Lady Maxwell sprang up quickly to go to him. But a moment after there appeared behind him a little group, his

p her voice under control; while Mistress Marga

Nicholas to the courier,

Holy Father has been found nailed to the door of the Bishop of London's pala

her husband and took

mean, sweethea

must choose between their

cy," said a s