The Doves' Nest, and Other StoriesMansfield, Katherine
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The Doves' Nest, and Other Stories
Mansfield, Katherine
Fiction; Short stories, New Zealand
Edna sat very still under the trees; she clasped the black book in
her fingers as though it were her missal. She takes the name of Sister
Angela. Snip! Snip! All her lovely hair is cut off. Will she be allowed
to send one curl to Jimmy? It is contrived somehow. And in a blue gown
with a white head-band Sister Angela goes from the convent to the chapel,
from the chapel to the convent with something unearthly in her look, in
her sorrowful eyes, and in the gentle smile with which they greet the
little children who run to her. A saint! She hears it whispered as she
paces the chill, wax-smelling corridors. A saint! And visitors to the
chapel are told of the nun whose voice is heard above the other voices,
of her youth, her beauty, of her tragic, tragic love. “There is a man in
this town whose life is ruined....”
A big bee, a golden furry fellow, crept into a freezia, and the delicate
flower leaned over, swung, shook; and when the bee flew away it fluttered
still as though it were laughing. Happy, careless flower!
Sister Angela looked at it and said, “Now it is winter.” One night,
lying in her icy cell she hears a cry. Some stray animal is out there in
the garden, a kitten or a lamb or—well, whatever little animal might be
there. Up rises the sleepless nun. All in white, shivering but fearless,
she goes and brings it in. But next morning, when the bell rings for
matins, she is found tossing in high fever ... in delirium ... and she
never recovers. In three days all is over. The service has been said in
the chapel, and she is buried in the corner of the cemetery reserved for
the nuns, where there are plain little crosses of wood. Rest in Peace,
Sister Angela....
Now it is evening. Two old people leaning on each other come slowly to
the grave and kneel down sobbing, “Our daughter! Our only daughter!”
Now there comes another. He is all in black; he comes slowly. But when
he is there and lifts his black hat, Edna sees to her horror his hair
is snow-white. Jimmy! Too late, too late! The tears are running down
his face; he is crying _now_. Too late, too late! The wind shakes the
leafless trees in the churchyard. He gives one awful bitter cry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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