to do i don t know said mrs mother dear do you know that that poor child has been shut up in that dreadful place for just two years i know it that none of us have been allowed to write to her that she has never been home for her holidays what did she do when all s said and done well if i tell you said mrs you will remember that is not to hear one word about it shall not hear a word about it from us eh certainly not said who had a tremendous idea of keeping fifteen year old in her place then mrs told them all about the terrible letter which madame had discovered and about which had definitely and positively refused to give any information whatever was it an englishman s letter yes certainly it was did it strike you as the letter of a gentleman yes i must say it did then my dear mother how very silly you were not to the man s name out of was so obstinate so defiant murmured mrs why of course she was is a girl of spirit not to be got over by a thing like madame le a silly romantic old thing who is a perfect disgrace to her sex why mother i ve seen madame take up a glass that old the ts � drawing master had drunk a out of i ve seen that silly old woman kiss the rim of the glass where his lips had touched it � a old thing that you wouldn t pick up for nothing if you saw him lying in the street cried mrs oh yes you may say but it s perfectly true she didn t know i saw her but i did you must have been mistaken me mistaken mother dear i know madame a great deal better than you do you only see the society and strictly proper side of madame it isn t girls like with wills and minds and opinions of their own who get on at no avenue not a bit of it it s a girl who ll look i at madame and say darling how sweet you look to day or dearest madame how that dress becomes you i ve never seen you look so charming in anything before that s the kind of girl who gets on in that establishment and i used to do it a good bit � didn t we � simply because it was advantageous and we got a no most better time and the silly old thing didn t see that it was all put on didn t she tell you what sweet and girls we were yes she did admitted mrs well all i can say is said with a laugh that it s a thousand madame hasn t got charge of us now for a few days we should very soon her all this is a revelation to me cried mrs in a tragic voice well you see dear you didn t take us into your confidence when you came back and we naturally felt a certain delicacy in asking what had done and besides you us and sat upon us and we didn t want to seem to be over any trouble that poor was in but we think a great deal more of than madame and we would take s word before madame s any day oh of course she wouldn t tell after madame had been at her s not the girl to do that � s a girl of spirit of course dear mother we don t like to ill find fault with you because never were girls who had such a mother as you ve been to us but at the same time we do think you ve treated poor very harshly and after all she s only eighteen now and it s very hard she should go on being shut up over a letter that somebody else wrote to her isn t it shall i send for home again asked mrs in a voice of despair i should if i were you said give the poor child a good time and don t say anything about the old cat at all treat her as if she d come home from an ordinary school and buy her some pretty clothes mother and make a lot of her you don t know what a dear child is mother she s worth all the rest of us put together i don t know so much about that said the mother smiling at them but i ll take your advice children and she shall come back well let her come back with a clean slate if she does said sensibly don t ever throw the past at her yes we shall do that perhaps i have been too harsh but with sudden apprehension supposing that that man finds her out again well dear mother he can t eat her did father want to eat you when he ran away with you besides probably all the conditions of his life are changed and he is two years older and so is she i wouldn t worry so about it if i were you only make up your mind that is coming home and that we are not going to have any of any kind why the very fact of her being with us who are clear headed and sensible girls ought to be quite enough to keep as clear headed as you can possibly desire i i chapter � the resolute will of a strong man means and nobly with his foe to achieve great deeds in accordance with her promise to her daughters mrs sent instructions to the mother superior of the of the sacred heart of that the and unfortunate should return home at the term and she told the mother superior that she would 