Nun Beatrice had not altogether the true spirit of a religious: she
was somewhat given to vanity; [197] though but for this she was a
good nun, and full of excellent dispositions. She held the office of
portress; [198] and, as she determined to go away out of her convent
and return into the world, this seemed to afford her a favourable
opportunity for carrying out her design. Accordingly, one day when the
house was very quiet, and there seemed no danger of being observed,
having previously contrived to secrete some secular clothes such as
passed through her hands to keep in store for giving to the poor,
she let herself out and went away.
In the parlour was a kneeling-desk with a picture of Our Lady hanging
over it, where she had been wont to kneel and hold converse with Our
Lady in prayer whenever she had a moment to spare. On this desk she
laid the keys before she went, thinking it was a safe place for the
Superior to find them; and she commended them to the care of Our Lady,
whose picture hung above, and said, 'Keep thou the keys, and let no
harm come to this good house and my dear sisters.'
As she said the words Our Lady looked at her with a glance of reproach,
enough to have melted her heart and made her return to a better mood
had she seen it; but she was too full of her own thoughts and the
excitement of her undertaking to notice anything. No sooner was she
gone out, however, than Our Lady, walking out of the canvas, assumed
the dress that she had laid aside, and, tying the keys to her girdle,
assumed the office of portress.
With the habit of the portress Our Lady also assumed her semblance;
so that no one noticed the exchange, except that all remarked how
humble, how modest, how edifying Beatrice had become.
After a time the nuns began to say it was a pity so perfect a
nun should be left in so subordinate a position, and they made her
therefore Mistress of the Novices. This office she exercised with as
great perfection, according to its requirements, as she had the other;
and so sweetly did she train the young nuns entrusted to her direction
that all the novices became saints.
Beatrice meantime had gone to live in the world as a secular; and
though she often repented of what she had done, she had not the
courage to go back and tell all. She prayed for courage, but she
went on delaying. While she was in this mind it so happened one day
that the factor [199] of the convent came to the house where she was
living. What strange and moving memories of her peaceful home filled
her mind as she saw his well-known form, though he did not recognise
her in her secular dress! What an opportunity too, she thought, to
learn what was the feeling of the community towards her, and what
had been said of her escape!
'I hope all your nuns are well,' she said. 'I used to live in their
neighbourhood once, and there was one of them I used to know, Suora
[200] Beatrice. How is she now?'
'Sister Beatrice!' said the factor. 'She is the model of perfection,
the example of the whole house. Everybody is ready to worship her. With
all respect to the Church, which never canonizes the living, no one
doubts she is a saint indeed.'
'It cannot be the same,' answered Beatrice. 'The one I knew was
anything but a saint, though I loved her well, and should like to
have news of her.' And she hardly knew how to conceal the astonishment
with which she was seized at hearing him speak thus; for the event on
which she expected him to enlarge at once was the extraordinary fact
of her escape. But he pursued in the same quiet way as before. 'Oh
yes, it must be the same. There has never been but one of the name
since I have known the convent. She was portress some time ago;
but latterly she has been made Mistress of the Novices.'
There was nothing more to be learnt from him; so she pursued her
inquiries no further. But he had no sooner had start enough to put
him at a safe distance, than she set out to go to the convent and
see this Sister Beatrice who so strangely represented her.
Arrived at the convent door, she asked to see Sister Beatrice, and
in a very few minutes the Mistress of the Novices entered the parlour.
The presence of the new Mistress of the Novices filled Beatrice with
an awe she could not account for; and, without waiting to ask herself
why, she fell on her knees before her.
'It is well you have come back, my child,' said Our Lady; 'resume
your dress, which I have worn for you; go in to the convent again,
and do penance, and keep up the good name I have earned for you.'
With that Our Lady returned to the canvas; Beatrice resumed her habit,
and strove so earnestly to form herself by the model of perfection Our
Lady had set while wearing it, that in a few months she became a saint.
[Mr. Ralston gives a Russian story (pp. 249-50), in which St. Nicholas
comes in person and serves a man who has been devout to his picture.]