Margery | Page 9

were these words under a skull.
"Bitter as it is to live a Carthusian, it is right sweet to die one."
There was a crucifix in a shrine, and so much bright red blood flowed
from the Crown of Thorns and the Wounds that the Sacred Body was
half covered with it, and I was sore afraid at the sight--oh I can find no
words for it! And all the while one nun after another glided through the
chamber in silence, and with bowed head, her arms folded, and never
so much as lifting an eye to look at me.
It was in May; the day was fine and pleasant, but I began to shiver, and
I felt as if the Spring had bloomed and gone, and I had suddenly
forgotten how to laugh and be glad. Presently a cat stole in, leapt on to
the bench where I sat, and arched her back to rub up against me; but I
drew away, albeit I commonly laved to play with animals; for it glared
at me strangely with its green eyes, and I had a sudden fear that it
would turn into a werewolf and do me a hurt.
At length the door opened, and a woman in nun's weeds came in with
my cousin; she was the taller by a head. I had never seen so tall a
woman, but the nun was very thin, too, and her shoulders scarce
broader than my own. Ere long, indeed, she stooped a good deal, and as
time went on I saw her ever with her back bent and her head bowed.
They said she had some hurt of the back-bone, and that she had taken
this bent shape from writing, which she always did at night.
At first I dared not look up in her face, for my cousin had told me that

with her I must be very diligent, that idleness never escaped her keen
eyes; and Gotz Waldstromer knew the meaning of the Latin motto with
which she began all her writings: "Beware lest Satan find thee idle!"
These words flashed through my mind at this moment; I felt her eye
fixed upon me, and I started as she laid her cold, thin fingers on my
brow and firmly, but not ungently, made me lift my drooping head. I
raised my eyes, and how glad I was when in her pale, thin face I saw
nothing but true, sweet good will.
She asked me in a low, clear voice, though hardly above a whisper,
how old I was, what was my name, and what I had learnt already. She
spoke in brief sentences, not a word too little or too many; and she ever
set me my tasks in the same manner; for though, by a dispensation, she
might speak, she ever bore in mind that at the Last Day we shall be
called to account for every word we utter.
At last she spoke of my sainted parents, but she only said: "Thy father
and mother behold thee ever; therefore be diligent in school that they
may rejoice in thee.--To-morrow and every morning at seven." Then
she kissed me gently on my head, bowed to my cousin without a word,
and turned her back upon us. But afterwards, as I walked on in the open
air glad to be moving, and saw the blue sky and the green meadows
once more, and heard the birds sing and the children at play, I felt as it
were a load lifted from my breast; but I likewise felt the tall, silent
nun's kiss, and as if she had given me something which did me honor.
Next morning I went to school for the first time; and whereas it is
commonly the part of a child's godparents only to send it parcels of
sweetmeats when it goes to school, I had many from various kinsfolks
and other of our friends, because they pitied me as a hapless orphan.
I thought more of my riches, and how to dispense them, than of school
and tasks; and as my cousin would only put one parcel into my little
satchel I stuffed another--quite a little one, sent me by rich mistress
Grosz, with a better kind of sweeties--into the wallet which hung from
my girdle.
On the way I looked about at the folks to see if they observed how I

had got on, and my little heart beat fast as I met my cousin Gotz in
front of Master Pernhart's brass-smithy. He had come from the forest to
live in the town, that he might learn book-keeping under the
tax-gatherers. We greeted each other merrily, and he pulled my plait of
hair and went on his way, while I felt as if this meeting had