Mother-Superior

Then she went, moving with the long, smooth, light step and upright, graceful carriage that she had somehow caught from the Mother-Superior, out of the room.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

The great grey eyes swam in sudden tears that were not to be repressed, as the Mother-Superior remembered the finding of that lost lamb on the veld seven years before.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

"When the walls fall about our ears, Colonel," the Mother-Superior had declared, "it will be time to leave them."

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

The long arm of the Mother-Superior went round the slight figure that leaned against her, and in the sudden gesture was a passion of protecting motherhood.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

He saw that the Mother-Superior caught her breath and wrung her hands together in the loose, concealing sleeves as she said, with a breath of anguish:

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

But the Mother-Superior was not a woman to betray emotion.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

Upon the great brows of the Mother-Superior sat the majesty of coming tempest.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

"Ah, my Sister, if I could do anything!" the Mother-Superior said, with the velvet Southern Irish inflection in the breathing aspirate, and the soft melodious cadence that made her pure, cultivated utterance so exquisite.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

The Mother-Superior hurried to her, saying with a note of anxiety in her usually calm voice:

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

The bush on the edge of the cleared space that was about the great boulder was parted by a white, strong hand and a black-sleeved arm, and the Mother-Superior moved out into the open, and came down with those long, swift steps of hers to where they were.

The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897