Turning her head, Mrs Bannister said: “I am telling her now.”

The audience craned forward in their seats, amid an electric silence, to watch her fingers moving. There were some seconds of hesitation and doubt – broken by an occasional sob from an overwrought child – while Mrs Bannister repeated the words she had spelled. Her trembling hands had made her touch uncertain. But there came a huge sigh as Esther’s face was seen to soften to a smile; and then a wild outburst of clapping as she leant forward and held out both her arms to the audience she could not see.

Here and there in the body of the hall, voices called to her; here and there, answering arms were held towards Esther, as if to complete an embrace. It was a loving clamour, like the clamour of penitents seeking to heal and to be healed.

Mrs Bannister happened to catch sight of the Mother Superior’s face at that moment, and saw in it a division of desire that was as moving as anything else that the moment could show. She was patently affected by what was happening – so much was obvious; the proud, capable face was softened, the eyes bright with unaccustomed tears. But against that, she was clearly striving to remember that this hall was full of children who were in her charge – and the children must, as a first necessity, be protected against these moments of tempest. Love and tears could always have their place; emotion and hysteria must never do so … But it was not an occasion that could be immediately controlled, and so she allowed it to run much of its course; and then, as Mrs Bannister watched, her face settled again into its cool competence, and very slowly she stood up.

A gradual stillness rose to meet her; the movement in the hall abated, the sounds fell away to nothing. It was not an easy silence, but it could pass for tranquillity if one forgot what had just been happening.

“All of us must be very grateful to Mrs Bannister,” the Mother Superior began. Her voice was measured, and consciously calm – a sedative voice that served to emphasize the storm of feeling that had just swept them all. “We must thank her, not only for coming here to tell us her story, but for the wonderful work she has done. I want you all to remember” – she was speaking now to her children – “how much love and faith she must have had in her heart, to do all this for another person, a stranger. We must try to copy her – and to copy Esther too, who has been patient, and brave, and determined, for so many long years. You all know that she cannot see you, you know that she cannot hear what I am saying. But Mrs Bannister will tell her afterwards what has been said, and how much” – she hesitated – “how much we all love her.”