Elizabeth G. Jordan

“ It was the Imp—the Imp conquered and repentant, but making her amends tempestuously, as she did all else. Saint Ernesta laid her tremulous, transparent hands on the mop of hair in her lap and turned on May a meaning glance she was quick to understand. The girl left the room hastily and closed the door behind her, but even as she turned away she heard the Imp's voice raised in strange, choked words, new to the vocabulary of Mercedes Centi. "Oh, Sister," it said, "dear Sister, I am sorry. Forgive me. I will be good. I will always be good." ”

“ Those who felt that the Imp might relent before the entertainment were disappointed. She was present, and Sister Ernesta was not. The nun's large empty chair was there, however, conspicuously placed at the end of the first row of Sisters, and Mercedes saw it as she stood with a band of little girls singing with glad hearts the class song, "In Heaven We Hope to Meet." The Imp went through her part of the exercise with suave self-possession. Nothing could have been more exemplary than her behavior. ”

“ On that dear, venerable back were laid the heavy burdens of the Imp's misdoing. How long must it bear them?
Mercedes followed her discourse with acute working of her alert mind and Southern imagination, but, if she was touched, she made no sign. She merely looked at May oddly out of her black eyes and intimated that she had no personal interest in the conversation. May watched her with more annoyance than surprise as she walked away. "Has that child a heart?" she mused. "Never. There isn't a symptom of one—the little wretch! What can dear Saint Ernesta see in her?" ”

“ She had spoken more than in years in defence of the small outlaw who had put herself beyond the pale of interest and affection. She must feel a strong inclination toward the child, the nuns reflected. But why? What could these two—Saint Ernesta and the Imp—have in common? They puzzled over the problem even as they unanimously assented to the venerable nun's plea. They were not at all sure it would succeed, but harder hearts than the Imp's might well be touched by it, and, on the whole, they were sanguine as they separated. ”

“ The nuns marvelled, but not long; for reflection needs a quiet atmosphere, and the Imp chose this time to crown her career at St. Mary's with a more audacious exploit than any of which she had yet been guilty.
High in the tower of the many-sided convent building hung an old bell whose tones for fifty years had called the nuns to mass each morning at five o'clock. It was rung only once again during the day—for vespers in the afternoon. During the remainder of the day smaller bells were sounded to remind the Sisterhood of the duties allotted to the passing hours. ”

“ During the most exciting days the quiet community had known in years, the nuns added to their store of information concerning the nature and characteristics of Mercedes Centi. It was a difficult lesson they were learning, for the experience of each day upset the carefully formed theories based on that of the day before. But out of it all, in the end, one truth loomed large. Never in the history of St. Mary's had so bad a little girl been sheltered in its walls—and never in the history of the world had a bad little girl shown so many fascinating qualities. ”

“ Everything pointed to her guilt, but her silence might mean injured innocence—the silence of one too proud to deny a baseless charge. They dismissed her for a time, with no outward indication of the bewildered dismay that filled their hearts, and she strolled back to her classroom to take up the congenial and temporary rôle of little sunbeam and bright, studious child. ”

“ Small girl after small girl made friendly advances, only to be spurned. In cold self-exile from the isle of friendship, the Imp followed what May Iverson called "her career of danger and daring."
On one occasion only did she show a temporary interest in human companionship. She had met Sister Ernesta in the garden—Saint Ernesta, as the girls called the oldest and most venerated Sister in the convent. Sister Ernesta was almost eighty, an age few nuns attain. ”

“ With some other than Mercedes the episode might have been the beginning of one of the strong friendships so often formed between pupil and Sister. Not so with the Imp. If she felt the human impulse, she crushed it, and made herself unusually obnoxious for several days to make up for it. She even took care at first to disappear when she saw Sister Ernesta approaching; but this tendency wore off after a time, and the two had several meetings, during which the Imp was confessedly on her guard. The talk between them was entirely impersonal and had to do with any living thing but Man. ”

“ In their hearts all knew she had done this thing. She should be punished, and in a way that would make a lasting impression. She suggested, as a just penalty, that Mercedes be forbidden to attend the great annual holiday entertainment given by the pupils to the nuns in the large hall of the institution. It was, next to the commencement, the event of the year, and to be kept away from it would be a severe punishment, even to the Imp, who had recently taken a deep interest in the rehearsals and had herself a small part in the musical programme. ”

“ At her last words the eyebrows of Mercedes' class teacher rose on a very human impulse, but she quickly controlled them. It was Saint Ernesta who was speaking, and who continued now, a little brokenly.
"I agree with you that some notice should be taken of this child's act—or her evident association with it. But it should be done in an unusual way. The situation is novel. It should be met in an effective fashion. I have a suggestion with which I hope you will agree. Let me act as proxy for my little friend. Let her go to the entertainment; let me remain away. ”

“ Sister Harmonia, the first to see the fraud, had hastened to give the alarm that something was wrong, and a number of the Sisters had gone with her to the tower and found the candle-grease and the burned matches and the open door. ”

“ The strict rule of the convent demanding smooth hair was violated by these flamboyant spirals, but even as the nuns noticed them the Imp was violating so many more important rules that they held their breath and gave thought and prayer to the human problem before them. ”