The careful observer of detail might have been led to suppose that the Sisters improved upon the practice of the Holy Father himself, and daily washed the feet of the poor.
Everywhere fresh-complexioned, gentle-faced nuns flitted silently about.
The brass crosses pendent over their breasts relieved with a single glitter the sombre folds of their robes.

Snowy coifs, which had cost the industrial schoolgirls of a sister house hours of labour and many tears, shone, glazed and unwrinkled, round their heads.

Even the youngest of them had acquired the difficult art of walking gracefully with her hands folded in front of her.
At about two o'clock the visitors began to arrive, although the train from Dublin which was to bring the very elect was not due for another half-hour.

Lady Geoghegan, grown pleasantly stout and cheerfully benignant, came by a local train, and rejoiced the eyes of beholders with a dress made of one of the convent tweeds.

Sir Gerald followed her, awkward and unwilling.