Picture to yourself the cruelty of bottling up a herd of monks here in
full view of their renounced liberty. Imagine being condemned to pass
this window a dozen times in the day, on the way to that dreary chapel
of theirs. A refinement of torture with which the window downstairs
simply can't compete. How they must have hated the smell of the sea,
poor dears! But I daresay they didn't open their windows very often. It
wasn't the fashion in those days."

She drew Olga on to the corridor above, and so to her own room, a
cheerful apartment that faced the Priory grounds.

"If I am really coming to stay with you, I suppose I must pack some
clothes. Does the young man dress for dinner, by the way?"

"Oh, yes. It's very ridiculous. We all do it now. It's such a waste of
time," said the practical Olga. "And I never have anything to wear."

"Poor child! That is a drawback certainly. I wonder if you could wear
any of my things. I shouldn't like to eclipse you."

"I'm sure I couldn't, thank you all the same." Olga's reply was very
prompt. "As to eclipsing me, you'll do that in any case, whatever you
wear."

Violet looked at her with dancing eyes. "I believe you actually want to
be eclipsed! What on earth has the young man been doing? He seems to
have scared you very effectually."

"Oh, I'm not afraid of him!" Olga spoke with her chin in the air. "But I
detest him with all my heart, and he detests me."