LX. THE CONVENT BELL




The White Ladies of Worcester


CHAPTER I

THE SUBTERRANEAN WAY

The slanting rays of afternoon sunshine, pouring through stone arches,
lay in broad, golden bands, upon the flags of the Convent cloister.

The old lay-sister, Mary Antony, stepped from the cool shade of the
cell passage and, blinking at the sunshine, shuffled slowly to her
appointed post at the top of the crypt steps, up which would shortly
pass the silent procession of nuns returning from Vespers.

Daily they went, and daily they returned, by the underground way, a
passage over a mile in length, leading from the Nunnery of the White
Ladies at Whytstone in Claines, to the Church of St. Mary and St.
Peter, the noble Cathedral within the walls of the city of Worcester.

Entering this passage from the crypt in their own cloisters, they
walked in darkness below the sunny meadows, passed beneath the
Fore-gate, moving in silent procession under the busy streets, until
they reached the crypt of the Cathedral.