letters, and dared not ask whether any had come for her.
She remembered that till she wrote her aunt would not know her address,
unless Mr Lerew had given it.

The short time that it was necessary to remain as a postulant had
expired, and in a formal service in the chapel she was received as a
probationer, and assumed the dress of the order. Scarcely a day had
passed before she found herself exposed to annoyances which she had not
hitherto experienced. During the hours of recreation the Deane, whose
duty it was to keep the Sisters in order, was continually rebuking her
for some transgression of rules, either for laughing or talking too
much, or addressing a Sister in a voice which the rest could not hear;
and she had to undergo in consequence all sorts of penalties. She
submitted, as she considered that she was in duty bound to do, though
she felt that they were far severer than the faults demanded. She could
discover none of the religious fervour which she had expected to find
among the Sisters, or of love or sympathy. Her own spirit, though not
broken, was kept under a thraldom, against which her judgment rebelled.
It appeared to her that the system was far better adapted to keep in
subjection a household of people out of their minds than a collection of
ladies in their right senses, who wished to serve God and do their duty
to their fellow-creatures. No Sister was allowed to visit another in
her cell, and sometimes for days and weeks together Clara did not see
some of the Sisters whom she had met on her first arrival. Where they
had gone, or what they were about, she could not learn. Little
attention was paid to those who were ill, and no sympathy was expressed.
A young Sister who had been sent out on a begging expedition for the
order, and had to trudge through the wet day after day, caught cold, and
was obliged to return. She grew pale and thin, and the ominous red spot
appeared on her cheek. She coughed incessantly, but still went through
her duties. At night she suffered most; and to prevent the sound from
disturbing others, she was ordered to move to a distant cell, without a
stove by which it could be warmed. Clara determined, against the rules,
to speak to her, and offered to come and sit by her; but she shook her
head, replying, "It must not be--you are wrong;" at the same time the
countenance of the dying girl expressed her gratitude. Clara's
infraction of the rules being discovered, she was orde