respect of all these trifles, that they feared him as though he had been
a god sitting on the throne of judgment.

Being gouty, he grew very weary in visiting all the usual parts of the
convent, and it thus came to pass that about the hour for vespers, an
hour which he had himself fixed upon, he found himself in the dormitory,
when the Abbess said to him--

"Reverend father, it is time to go to vespers."

"Go, mother," he replied, "do you go to vespers. I am so weary that I
will remain here, yet not to rest but to speak to Sister Marie, of
whom I have had a very bad report, for I am told that she prates like a
worldly-minded woman."

The Abbess, who was aunt to the maiden's mother, begged him to
reprove her soundly, and left her alone with him and a young monk who
accompanied him.

When he found himself alone with Sister Marie, he began to lift up her
veil, and to tell her to look at him. She answered that the rule of her
order forbade her to look at men.

"It is well said, my daughter," he replied, "but you must not consider
us monks as men."

Then Sister Marie, fearing to sin by disobedience, looked him in the
face; but he was so ugly that she though it rather a penance than a sin
to look at him.