“Monsieur ne mange rien,” said Sister St. Joseph.
“Monsieur's palate is ruined by Manchu cooking,” replied the Mother Superior.
The smile left Sister St. Joseph's face and she assumed an expression of some primness. Waddington, a roguish glance in his eyes, took another cake. Kitty did not understand the incident.
“To prove to you how unjust you are, ma mère,I will ruin the excellent dinner that awaits me.”
“If Mrs. Fane would like to see over the convent I shall be glad to show her.” The Mother Superior turned to Kitty with a deprecating smile. “I am sorry you should see it just now when everything is in disorder. We have so much work and not enough Sisters to do it. Colonel Yü has insisted on our putting our infirmary at the disposal of sick soldiers and we have had to make the réfectoire into an infirmary for our orphans.”
She stood at the door to allow Kitty to pass and together, followed by Sister St. Joseph and Waddington, they walked along cool white corridors. They went first into a large, bare room where a number of Chinese girls were working at elaborate embroideries. They stood up when the visitors entered and the Mother Superior showed Kitty specimens of the work.
“We go on with it notwithstanding the epidemic because it takes their minds off the danger.”
They went to a second room in which younger girls were doing plain sewing, hemming and stitching, and then into a third where there were only tiny children under the charge of a Chinese covert. They were playing noisily and when the Mother Superior came in they crowded round her, mites of two and three, with their black Chinese eyes and their black hair; and they seized her hands and hid themselves in her great skirts. An enchanting smile lit up her grave face, and she fondled them; she spoke little chaffing words which Kitty, ignorant though she was of Chinese, could tell were like caresses. She shuddered a little, for in their uniform dress, sallow-skinned, stunted, with their flat noses, they looked to her hardly human. They were repulsive. But the Mother Superior stood among them like Charity itself. When she wished to leave the room they would not let her go, but clung to her, so that, with smiling expostulations, she had to use a gentle force to free herself. They at all events found nothing terrifying in this great lady.
“You know of course,” she said, as they walked along another corridor, “that they are only orphans in the sense that their parents have wished to be rid of them. We give them a few cash for every child that is brought in, otherwise they will not take the trouble, but do away with them.” She turned to the Sister. “Have any come to-day?” she asked.
“Four.”
“Now, with the cholera, they are more than ever anxious not to be burdened with useless girls.”
She showed Kitty the dormitories and then they passed a door on which was painted the word infirmerie. Kitty heard groans and loud cries and sounds as though beings not human were in pain.
“I will not show you the infirmary,” said the Mother Superior in her placid tones. “It is not a sight that one would wish to see.” A thought struck her. “I wonder if Dr. Fane is there?”
She looked interrogatively at the Sister and she, with her merry smile, opened the door and slipped in. Kitty shrank back as the open door allowed her to hear more horribly the turmult within. Sister St. Joseph came back.
“No, he has been and will not be back again till later.”
“What about number six?”
“Pauvre garçon, he's dead.”
The Mother Superior crossed herself and her lips moved in a short and silent prayer.
They passed by a courtyard and Kitty's eyes fell upon two long shapes that lay side by side on the ground covered with a piece of blue cotton. The Superior turned to Waddington.
“We are so short of beds that we have to put two patients in one and the moment a sick man dies he must be bundled out in order to make room for another.” But she gave Kitty a smile. “Now we will show you our chapel. We are very proud of it. One of our friends in France sent us a little while ago a life-size statue of the Blessed Virgin.”
“先生一点儿也没吃。”[1]圣约瑟夫修女说道。
“先生的口味被满族人的烹饪彻底毁了。”院长嬷嬷回答道。
圣约瑟夫修女的脸上笑容不见了，开始显得一本正经了。威廷顿很调皮地瞥了她一眼，又拿起一块小点心，一口吃了下去。凯蒂还有点儿摸不着头脑。
“为了证明您对我的评价是多么的不公正，嬷嬷，我将在晚餐时大吃一顿，把我面前的美味一扫而光。”
“如果费恩太太想参观修道院，我很乐意领她转转。”院长嬷嬷转身冲着凯蒂说道，脸上带着对威廷顿的话不以为然的微笑。“很遗憾，你会看到现在一切都是乱糟糟的，我们有太多的工作要做，而没有足够的修女。余上校坚持让我们的医院收治患病的士兵，所以我们不得不把餐厅改成了医院，用来收留孤儿。”
她站在门口让凯蒂和她一起进去，圣约瑟夫修女和威廷顿在后面跟着。他们沿着一个幽静的白色回廊走着，首先进入了一间空旷的大屋子，里面有很多中国女孩正在做着精美的刺绣，当参观者进来后，她们都站起身来，院长嬷嬷给凯蒂展示了一些刺绣样品。
“尽管有瘟疫，但我们的工作照常进行，这样还可以转移注意力，不受危险的干扰。”
他们又走进第二间屋子，屋子里更年幼一点儿的女孩们正在做简单的缝纫、卷边、缝针脚等。随后，他们进入了第三间屋子，这里只有一些很小的孩子，他们在一位中国教徒的照看下，大声嚷嚷地玩耍着，看到院长嬷嬷进来，他们就围在她身边。三三两两的小孩，个个是乌溜溜的黑眼珠和黑头发，有的抓着嬷嬷的手，有的在嬷嬷宽大的袍子下摆里玩捉迷藏。院长嬷嬷严肃的面孔上露出了迷人的微笑，她一边爱抚着他们，一边对他们说着逗笑的话，凯蒂虽然听不懂汉语，但也能明白都是些哄孩子的话。她受到了震动，孩子们穿着统一的服装，黄皮肤、发育不全的小身子、塌鼻梁，在她眼中几乎都不像人类，是令人厌恶的动物，但院长嬷嬷站在他们中间就像圣母本身，当她要离开这间屋子时，他们都不愿意让她走，紧紧地贴着她。所以，她一边笑着劝慰孩子们，一边不得不稍微用点儿劲让自己脱身。无论如何，在这个伟大的女士身上，他们一点儿也没有发现使他们害怕的东西，而只有善良和慈爱。
“当然，你知道，”当他们走到另外一个回廊时，她接着说道，“在某种意义上，他们只能说是弃儿，他们的父母不想要他们了，每个被带到这儿的孩子我们都会付一些现钞，否则的话，他们才不会费事把孩子送到这儿来，只是直接抛弃就行了。”她转过身去问圣约瑟夫修女，“今天又送来了几个？”
“四个。”
“现在瘟疫蔓延，他们就更加担心孩子会成为负担了，尤其是女孩。”
她领着凯蒂参观了宿舍，随后他们路过了一扇门，门上写着两个大字“医院”。凯蒂能够听到门后传来的痛苦的呻吟声、喊叫声，那声音简直就不像人类所发出的。
“我不打算领你参观医院了。”院长嬷嬷用平静的口吻说道，“没人希望看到那样的景象。”这时，一个念头突然冒了出来，“我想知道费恩大夫是否在里面。”
她用疑问的目光看着圣约瑟夫修女，而后者带着愉快的笑容，打开门溜了进去。当门打开后，凯蒂又往后缩了，因为里面传出的可怕的嘈杂声听得更真切了。这时，圣约瑟夫修女又出来了。
“没有，他不在，而且有事不再过来了。”
“六号病床的病人怎么样了？”
“可怜的孩子[2]，他死了。”
院长嬷嬷在胸前画着十字，嘴里快速而又喃喃地祷告着。
他们穿过了院落，凯蒂的目光落在了两个长长的东西上，这两个东西并排放在地面上，上面覆盖着一块蓝色的棉布。院长嬷嬷转身向威廷顿说道：“我们现在床铺很短缺，不得不把两个病人放在一张床上，如果一个病人死了，就必须赶紧抬走，为了给另一个病人腾地儿。”但是，她向凯蒂微微一笑。“现在我们领你去看一下我们的小教堂，我们很为此自豪呢，我们在法国的一位朋友前不久给我们送来了一座真人大小的圣母玛利亚的雕像。”
* * *
[1]原文为法语。
[2]原文为法语。
