The Abbess of Crewe by Muriel Spark

Gregorian music, the true voices of the community, trained in daily practice by the
     Choir Mistress for these moments in their profession. All the community is present
     except Felicity and Winifrede. The Abbess in her freshly changed robe stands before her
     high seat while the antiphon rises and falls.
    Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the clean of
     heart:
    for they shall see God.
    Still as an obelisk before them stands Alexandra, to survey what
     she has made, and the Abbess Hildegarde before her, to find it good and bravely to
     prophesy. Her lips move as in a film dubbed into a strange language:
    When will you ever, Peace,
     wild wooddove, sky wings
    shut,
    Your round me roaming end, and under be my
     boughs?
    When, when, Peace, will you, Peace?
     — I’ll not play
    hypocrite
    To my own heart: I yield
     you do come sometimes; but
    That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What
     pure peace allows
    Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the
     death of it?
    In the hall, at the foot of the staircase,
     Mildred says, ‘Where is Winifrede?’
    The Abbess does not reply until they have reached her parlour and are seated.
    ‘Winifrede has been to the ladies’ lavatory on the ground floor at
     Selfridge’s and she has not yet returned.’
    Walburga says, ‘Where will it all end?’
    ‘How on earth,’ says Mildred, ‘can those two young men pick up their
     money in the ladies’ room?’
    ‘I expect they will send some girl in to pick it up. Anyway, those were
     Winifrede’s instructions,’ says Alexandra.
    ‘The more people who know about it the less I like it,’ Walburga says.
    ‘The more money they demand the less I like it,’ says the Abbess.
     ‘Actually, I heard about these demands for the first time this morning. It makes
     me wonder what on earth Baudouin and Maximilian were thinking of to send those boys into
     the Abbey in the first place.’
    ‘We wanted Felicity’s love-letters,’ Mildred says.
    ‘We needed her love-letters,’ says Walburga.
    ‘If I had known that was all you needed I could have arranged the job
     internally,’ says the Abbess. ‘We have the photo-copy machines after
     all.’
    ‘Felicity was very watchful at that time,’ Mildred says. ‘We had to
     have you elected Abbess, Alexandra.’
    ‘I would have been elected anyway,’ says the Abbess. ‘But, Sisters, I
     am with you.’
    ‘If they hadn’t taken her thimble the first time they broke in, Felicity
     would never have suspected a thing,’ Walburga says.
    Mildred says, ‘They were out of their minds, touching that damned thimble. They
     only took it to show Maximilian how easy it was to break in.’
    ‘Such a fuss,’ says the Abbess, as she has said before and will say again,
     with her lyrical and indifferent air, ‘over a little silver thimble.’
    ‘Oh, well, we know very little about it,’ says Mildred. ‘I personally
     know nothing about it.’
    ‘I haven’t the slightest idea what it’s all about,’ says
     Walburga. ‘I only know that if Baudouin and Maximilian can’t continue to
     find money, then they are in it up to the neck.’
    ‘Winifrede, too, is in it up to the neck,’ says the Abbess, as she has said
     before and will say again.
    The telephone rings from the central switchboard. Frowning and tight-skinned, Walburga
     goes to answer it while Mildred watches with her fair, unseasonably summer-blue eyes.
     Walburga places her hand over the mouthpiece and says, ‘The
Daily
     Express
wants to know if you can make a statement, Lady Abbess, concerning
     Felicity’s psychiatric treatment.’
    ‘Tell them,’ says the Abbess, ‘that we have no knowledge of
     Felicity’s activities since she left the convent. Her stall in the chapel is empty
     and it awaits her return.’
    Walburga repeats this slowly to the nun who operates the switchboard, and whose voice
     quivers as she replies, ‘I will give them that message, Sister
     Walburga.’
    ‘Would you really take her back?’ Mildred says.