the pope
at Easter and distributed throughout Christendom from the papal
metropolis. Another convent industry is the preparation of the wafers
used in the celebration of mass.

These Dominicanesses rise at four in the morning and dine at eleven,
making after that only one slight meal in the evening--bread and
vegetables, for instance, or a saucerful of macaroni. At stated times
they assemble in the chapel for the singing of the "divine office,"
and always have an early mass, at which the whole community receives
holy communion. This is administered by the priest through a square
opening in the iron grating dividing the nuns from the altar. At
eight, or at latest nine o'clock in the evening, all are in bed,
whence they rise again at midnight (in some orders at two o'clock in
the morning, but this custom involves rising somewhat later, generally
five o'clock) for matins and lauds.

The duties of separate departments are judiciously divided among the
sisters. There is the infirmarian; the _econome_, or housekeeper,
to whose share falls the supplying of the larder; the librarian, the
sacristan, the portress (often in cloistered orders this position,
which is exceptional in its exemptions, involves the ordering of
outside business matters), the care-taker of the garments and linen,
the gardener, the secretary, the mistress and sub-mistress of novices.
The house is managed like clockwork. Punctually as the bell rings each
sister goes to the task appointed for that hour, and leaves it, no
matter how important or absorbing it may be, for the duty appointed
by the rule for the next division of time. Silence prevails among the
sisters at almost all hours: for at most three times a day speech is
permitted, and seldom for more than half an hour at a time. During
meals one sister reads the _Lives of the Saints_ aloud. Each in her
turn takes the place of server at table. The superioress alone has
power to dispense with the rule of silence in case of necessity, as
she transacts most of the business, social or legal, of her community.

During the year of novitiate the novices are under the direct rule
of the mistress of novices, whose authority over them is paramount,
though she herself is of course under a vow of obedience to the
superior. When a novice receives a visit from one in the world she is
accompanied by the "mistress," and if the visitor be a near relation
and a woman the curtain behind the grating is withdrawn; if only