“’Ah, well, I don’t think I cared very much for the flavouring,’ said
Sister Barbara in pondering tones.
“’You seemed to me to be enjoying it very much at the time,’ I said, joining the conversation for the first time; and when I added that Sister Barbara had eaten four slices of bread and butter the laugh turned against Barbara, and every one was hilarious. It is evident that Sister Barbara’s appetite is considered an excellent joke in the novitiate.
“Of course I marvelled that grown-up women should be so easily amused, and then remembered a party at the Savoy Hotel (on leaving it I went to the presbytery to confess to you, Monsignor). I had to admit to myself that the talk at Louise Helbrun’s party did not move on a higher level; our conversation did not show us to be wiser than the n
