THE PRIEST AND THE WOMAN

TO A NUN WITHOUT CLOISTER

V

THE PRIEST AND THE WOMAN

Near the doorway of a house in a narrow street, where Death had lodged yesterday night, stood a Priest.  A woman, passing by, knelt at his feet, passionately kissed the hem of his robe, and hurried on, beneath an Arch, into a Garden where there were many flowers and a Shrine to the Blessed Virgin.

The Priest did not move.  But a flush of unwonted color rose into his white face and made it crimson with shame.

“After all these years,” he sighed.

* * * * *

“Ave Maria!  Ave Maria!” wailed the voice of the woman in the Garden where there were many flowers, before the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin.