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"That one must know, or one might take the one for the other. Will you come and see ?”

I went, almost trembling.

"Well, my girl, the doctor says you must be bled." "Yes, my sister."

"Sit down. Have you got a bandage?" "Yes, my sister."

"Give me your arm.-The other."

The arm is tied up; the ruddy sister attendant hands the lancet; the vein is opened; the proper quantity of blood taken; the vein bound up; the patient clapped on the shoulder; desired to come to see the operator if she is better, and to send for her if she is worse; the friend who brings her goes away with her, and the Sister Superior goes back to her ironing, and desires the blooming assistant to get me a glass of orange flower water, as I am ready to faint from the sight of blood, and the dread that in the operation of bleeding being performed by a woman an artery should be cut instead of a vein.

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Certainly if one were not properly taught that might happen," she said, "I thought so myself before I learnt how to do it; and I assure you the first time I did it I was a little uneasy."

To change the subject I began to talk of the multitude of white caps on the tables.

"You wear them wherever you go-in foreign countries too."

"Yes, except in England." "And why not there?"

"O!-Well, they say the children would laugh at us in the streets."

"They do not laugh at the German women, nor the Turks, nor Indians, nor any people who wear their own costumes; and then the dress I have seen worn by Sisters of Mercy there is so ugly."

We had to

"Ah! you need not tell me that. dress one of ours like that to go to England, and I said to her when she put on the black bonnet-Now my dear, you are just dressed up to frighten the English crows."

Now you will say this is all mere gossip, and in truth it is nothing more; but there is some meaning in it for all that. I want you to see something of the reality of a real human creature which our English fancies have generally either exalted too high or sunk too low. It is her distinctive character of purity and goodness that separates her in any degree from other people. We know not very much of real nuns, convents, or sisters, in England; so that I am sure in my story-reading days, when I used to read of some fascinating nun escaping from her cell, I never imagined there was any difference between the cell. of a nun in a convent, and the cell of a convict in prison. The other day I was led by circumstances into a convent of the strictest rule; so strict that no male relative beyond the relationship of father or brother must speak to a nun even through the iron bars of the grille, without the screen being down between them. On this occasion a very elegant nun,

of fascinating manners, conducted me to two or three cells of the religious; they were neat, plain, but sufficiently comfortable little rooms; the beds, instead of presenting me with bare straw pallets, being neatly closed round with white curtains. The recollection of my early ideas flashed so vividly on my mind, that with a smile I told them to the nun. "Ah!" she said, "that is so like a young person."

"But," I replied, looking round, "I almost believe that English people think it more religious not to have curtains."

"And we," she rejoined, "think it more decent to have them."

but cer

That last notion of mine may be wrong, tainly I have heard from relations who remembered the commencement of the religious revival in England, I mean the Evangelical movement that took place soon after the peace, that religious persons then thought it wrong to eat with a silver fork or spoon, to have any but sad coloured papers on their walls, or wear any but sad coloured dresses. Certainly the children of that age did not take after their parents; for in later years even the wives and daughters of the Evangelical Clergy seemed to set a fashion of their own in gay attire, and fashionable furniture. England seems, above all others, the land of reaction.

In contrast to one or the other extreme, I have been exceedingly struck with the gracefulness of the sleeping rooms in some of the sisters' houses. The charm consists in simplicity and appropriateness,

The white draperied beds looking so pure and girllike; the walls in general present a total absence of even religious pictures or ornaments. I never recollect seeing a cross or a crucifix at a bed; I do not say that such may not be seen, but I never once saw them. The air of cheerfulness too; the usually lively yet not gaudy papers on the walls; the polished floors, in some little rooms overlaid with a neat carpet, not always seen in French apartments, all is so unlike what I have myself heard in England, that I write it to you simply because one likes to repeat what is pleasant to oneself. And why should it be otherwise? It is very hard to be cheerful in a house that is purposely made to look dull; and cheerfulness is the attribute of the Sister of Charity.

Farewell.

LETTER III.

You remember the expected distribution to which the poor people were invited by our sister. I went to see it. This was a special distribution of bread, and there was a more than ordinary crowd of applicants. I took a back entrance to the sisters' house, in consequence of seeing many of these poor decent people hurrying on or returning back with a loaf or two in their hands. I ought not to have gone that way unless I wanted to claim a loaf also; but I was glad I did, for I had a better sight of the

scene.

There was a wide open window, like that of a butcher's stall, at the back of the house, with a court before it, filled with a quiet respectful group of poor. At the window stood the Sister Superior and her attendant sister; behind her was a gentleman with the organ of benevolence largely developed on his brow, and near to him was a baker's man. The sister was somewhat in haste, for the hour allotted to this work was nearly past; her voice was heard both loud and authoritative; and as she called the names, if the owners answered they received one or two loaves according to the allotment already made in the book before her; if they delayed to answer,

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