to an extensive connection, kept up by means of the most decided members
of the ultramontane (i. e. high-church) party, a great number of rich
orphans were placed in the convent, there to receive a solid, austere,
religious education, very preferable, it was said, to the frivolous
instruction which might be had in the fashionable boarding schools,
infected by the corruption of the age. To widows also, and lone women who
happened moreover to be rich, the convent offered a sure asylum from the
dangers and temptations of the world; in this peaceful retreat, they
enjoyed a delightful calm, and secured their salvation, whilst surrounded
by the most tender and affectionate attentions. Nor was this all. Mother
Sainte-Perpetue, the superior of the convent, undertook in the name of
the institution to procure for the faithful, who wished to preserve the
interior of their houses from the depravity of the age, companions for
aged ladies, domestic servants, or needlewomen working by the day, all
selected persons whose morality could be warranted. Nothing would seem
more worthy of sympathy and encouragement than such an institution; but
we shall presently unveil the vast and dangerous network of intrigue
concealed under these charitable and holy appearances. The lady Superior,
Mother Sainte-Perpetue, was a tall woman of about forty years of age,
clad in a stuff dress of the Carmelite tan color, and wearing a long
rosary at her waist; a white cap tied under the chin, and a long black
veil, closely encircled her thin, sallow face. A number of deep wrinkles
had impressed their transverse furrows in her forehead of yellow ivory;
her marked and prominent nose was bent like the beak of a bird of prey;
her black eye was knowing and piercing; the expression of her countenance
was at once intelligent, cold and firm.

In the general management of the pecuniary affairs of the community,
Mother Sainte-Perpetue would have been a match for the most cunning
attorney. When women are possessed of what is called a talent for