Elizabeth G. Jordan

“ It was part of her routine work to read the correspondence that came to the nuns under her care, and the duty frequently brought in its train harassing problems and responsibilities. It had never brought her a harder one than this. Before her rose the face of the young novice, at work in happy unconsciousness of the clouds that hung over the dear home she had forsaken. She was in the infirmary assisting Sister Rodriguez, the convent infirmarian, and had proved a tower of strength to the fragile nun whose health had failed sadly during the year. ”

“ Over her face a gray shadow fell. Even as the nun looked the features seemed to stiffen. The doctors stepped back, and Dr. Sedgwick, going to the man at the foot of the bed, put a sympathetic hand under his arm and helped him to rise. Edith, who had sprung to her feet, sank down again with a bitter cry. The strange doctor drew the sheet gently over the still face on the pillow.
And now there were tapers burning about that placid face.—No!—This was the convent chapel, and the tapers were those that burned dimly on the altar. It had grown dark and cold. She was still upon her knees. ”

“ The Superior will send you home, I know, if you tell her this. Write and let me know when to expect you. There is no time to be lost Mother."
"If I go, Sister Rodriguez is the only one who could take charge of my duties," reflected Sister Philomene. "That would mean that Sister Cuthbert would have to take her place in the infirmary."
She read again, slowly, the letter addressed to the novice:
"Sister M. Cuthbert. "Dear Madam, You will pardon the intrusion of a friend who writes in your interest. I feel it my duty to inform you of the very alarming condition of your mother. ”

“ Sister Cuthbert went directly to the room of the Mother Superior and told her experience.
In the days that followed, the influence of Sister Cuthbert, always benign, had in it in the sickroom a new element which even the most careless of the girls felt strongly. In the past she had helped, strengthened, and comforted. Now she seemed to uplift as well—to bear others upward by the gentle force of her own spiritual ascent. If there had been any criticism of her in the old days, among those most severe of critics, the school-girls, it was that she was visionary.
"She is not human enough ”

“ A pathetic feature of your mother's illness, and one which, as an old friend of the family as well as its physician, has moved me deeply, is the fact that in her delirium she constantly calls for you. In her conscious moments she insists with the unselfishness you know so well that you be not summoned to her, as such a call at this time might interfere with your duties in the cloister. ”

“ He loves you, and you might be able to do something with him. I cannot bear to think of his death unless he changes. How can I live alone without any hope of meeting him in heaven? He keeps asking for you all the time. ”

“ He gets weaker all the time, and the doctor says he cannot live more than a few days. He is conscious, and knows us all. He knows he is going to die, but he will not talk about it, or let us say a word about the salvation of his soul. You know how much I want him to die a Catholic. ”