day by day, the interest of my nun in her work appeared to increase. every morning, so soon as she sat down at her table, she read to me the concluding portion of what had been written the day before; and if a sunday intervened, she gave me a page or more. her interest was manifested in various ways. several times she so far forgot the instructions she must have received as to turn her face towards me, when asking me to repeat something that she did not catch, and on such occasions i could not for some moments remember what i had said, or indeed what i was about to say.
once she stopped writing, and, turning half round in her chair, looked fairly at me, and said that she thought i had made a mistake in saying that visitors were not allowed to go up the tower of pisa without a guide; for she, with two other ladies, had gone to the top without any one accompanying them. but she thought it was very wrong to allow people to do this, and that i should be doing a service to travelers if i were to say something on the subject.
of course i replied that i would make the correction, and that i would say something about the carelessness to which she referred. then there ensued a pause, during which she turned her face towards the window, imagining, i have no doubt, that i was busy endeavoring to compose something suitable to say upon the subject; but i was not thinking of anything of the sort. i was allowing my mind to revel in the delight which i had had in looking at her while she spoke. when her pen began to scratch impatiently upon the paper, i plunged into some sort of a homily on the laxity of vigilance in leaning towers. but, even while dictating this, i was wondering what she would look like if, instead of that gray shawl and gown, she were arrayed in one of the charming costumes which often make even ordinary young ladies so attractive.
as our daily work went on, my nun relaxed more frequently her proscribed rigidity, and became more and more like an ordinary person. when she looked at me or spoke, she always did so in such an unpremeditated manner, and with such an obvious good reason, that i could not determine whether her change of manner was due to accumulative forgetfulness, or to a conviction that it was absurd to continue to act a part which was not only unnatural under the circumstances, but which positively interfered with the work in hand. some of her suggestions were of the greatest service, but i fear that the value of what she said was not as fully appreciated as was the pleasure of seeing and hearing her say it.
thus joyously passed the hours of work, and in the hours when i was not working i looked forward with glad anticipation to the next forenoon; but after a time i began to be somewhat oppressed by the fear that my work would come to an end before long for want of material. i was already nearing the southern limit of my travels, and my return northward had not been productive of the sort of subject-matter i desired. in my recitals to walkirk i had gone much more into detail regarding my experiences, and had talked about a great many things which it had been pleasant to talk about, but which i did not consider good enough to put into my book. in dictating to my nun i had carefully sifted the mass to which walkirk had listened, and had used only such matter as i thought would interest her and the general reader. my high regard for the intelligence of my secretary and her powers of appreciation had led me to discard too much, and therefore there was danger that my supply of subject-matter would give out before my nun grew to be an elderly woman; and this i did not desire.
i had read and heard enough of the travels of others to be able to continue my descriptions of foreign countries for an indefinite period; but i had determined, from the first, that nothing should go into my book except my own actual experiences, and therefore i could not rely upon other books for the benefit of mine. but, in considering the matter, i concluded that, if my material should be entirely my own, it would answer my purpose to make that material what i pleased; and thus it happened that i determined to weave a story into my narrative. this plan, i assured myself, would be in perfect harmony with the design of my work. the characters could be drawn from the people whom i had met in my travels. the scenes could be those which i had visited, and the plot and tone of the story could be made to aid the reader in understanding the nature of the country and the people of which it was told. more than all, i could make the story as long as i pleased.
this was a capital idea, and i began immediately to work upon it. i managed the story very deftly; at least that was my opinion. my two principal characters made their appearance in sicily, and at first were so intermingled with scenery and incidents as not to be very prominent; then they came more to the front, and other characters introduced themselves upon occasion. as these personages appeared and reappeared, i hoped that they would gradually surround themselves with an interest which would steadily increase the desire to know more and more about them. thus, as i went on, i said less and less about sicily, and more and more about my characters, especially the young man and the young woman, the curious blending of whose lives i was endeavoring to depict.
this went on very smoothly for a few days, and then, about eleven o'clock one morning, my nun suddenly leaned back in her chair and laid down her pen.
"i cannot write any more of this," she said, looking out of the window.
i was so astonished that i could scarcely ask her what she meant.
"this is love-making," she continued, "and with love-making the sisters of the house of martha can have nothing to do. it is one of our principal rules that we must not think about it, read about it, or talk about it; and of course it would have been forbidden to write about it, if such a contingency had ever been thought of. therefore i cannot do any more work of that kind."
in vain i expostulated; in vain i told her that this was the most important part of my book; in vain i declaimed about the absurdity of such a regulation; in vain i protested; in vain i reasoned. she shook her head, and said there was no use talking about it; she knew the rules, and should obey them.
i had been standing near the grating, but now i threw myself into a chair, and sat silent, wondering what i should do. must i give up this most admirable plan of carrying on my work, simply because those foolish sisters had made absurd rules for themselves? must i wind up my book for want of material? not for a moment did i think of getting another secretary, or of selecting some other sort of that stuff which literary people call padding, for the purpose of prolonging my pleasant labors. i was becoming interested in the love-story i had begun, and i wanted to go on with it, and i believed also that it would be of great advantage to my book; but, on the other hand, it was plain that my nun would not write this story, and it was quite as plain to me that i could not insist upon anything which would cause her to leave me.
"don't you think," she said presently, still looking towards the window, "that we had better do some sort of work for the rest of the morning? it is not right for me to sit here idle. suppose you try to supply some of the words which were left out of the manuscript, in the first days of my writing for you."
"very well," said i; and, taking up her memoranda, she began to look for the vacant spaces which she had left in the manuscript pages. i supplied very few words, for to save my life i could not at this moment bring my mind to bear upon such trifles; but it was pretense of work, and better than embarrassing idleness. before my secretary left me i must think of something to say to her in regard to the work for to-morrow; but what should i say? should i tell her i would drop the story, or that i would modify it so as to make it feasible for her to write? something must quickly be decided upon, and while i was tumultuously revolving the matter in my mind twelve o'clock and the sub-mother came. my secretary went away, with nothing but the little bow which she was accustomed to make when leaving the room.
