six
o'clock
The tears sprang to my eyes , and the Reverend Mother drew me to her side and laid my head on her breast and comforted me , saying my dear mother had lived the life of a good Christian and could safely trust in the redeeming blood of our Blessed Saviour . But I thought she must have some knowledge of the conditions of my life at home , for she told me that whatever happened I was to come back to her . `` Tell your father you _ wish _ to come back to me , '' she said , and then she explained the arrangements that were being made for my journey . I was to travel alone by the Paris express which left Rome at six o'clock that evening . The Mother of the Novices was to put me in a sleeping car and see that the greatest care would be taken of me until I arrived at Calais , where Father Donovan was to meet the train and take me home . I cried a great deal , I remember , but everybody in the Convent was kind , and when , of my own choice , I returned to the girls at recreation , the sinister sense of dignity which by some strange irony of fate comes to all children when the Angel of Death is hovering over them , came to me also -- poor , helpless innocent -- and I felt a certain distinction in my sorrow . At five o'clock the omnibus of the Convent had been brought round to the door , and I was seated in one corner of it , with the Mother of the Novices in front of me , when Mildred Bankes came running breathlessly downstairs to say that the Reverend Mother had given her permission to see me off .