From the crypt, a winding stairway in the wall led up to a chamber
above the choir, whence, unseeing and unseen, the White Ladies of
Worcester daily heard the holy monks below chant Vespers.

To Sister Mary Antony fell the task of counting the five-and-twenty
veiled figures, as they passed down the steps and disappeared beneath
the ground, and of again counting them as they reappeared, and moved in
stately silence along the cloister, each entering her own cell, to
spend, in prayer and adoration, the hours until the Refectory bell
should call them to the evening meal.

This counting of the White Ladies dated from the day, now more than
half a century ago, when Sister Agatha, weakened by prolonged fasting,
and chancing to walk last in the procession, fainted and, falling
silently, remained behind, unnoticed, in the solitude and darkness.

It was the habit of this saintly lady to abide in her own cell after
Vespers, dispensing with the evening meal; thus her absence was not
discovered until the following morning when Mary Antony, finding the
cell empty, hastened to report that Sister Agatha having long, like
Enoch, walked with God, had, even, as Enoch, been translated!

The nuns who flocked to the cell, inclining to Mary Antony's view of
the strange happening, kneeled upon the floor before the empty couch,
and worshipped.

The Prioress of that time, however, being of a practical turn of mind,
ordered the immediate lighting of the lanterns, and herself descended
to search the underground way.