CHAPTER X. 

 PREVENTIVE PATHOLOGY 



ABOUT ten years ago I began a big building, with 

 sections, subsections and interior walls, and the 

 people wondered, for the like had not been seen 

 among them ; and the secret spread, that I was 

 building a convent, to be worked in a way of my 

 own, under modern administration. That was the 

 theory of a local expert who, having seen something 

 of ascetic architecture, could not otherwise account 

 for the numerous " cells " in my ground plan. 



At that time, I had not yet outgrown the Irish 

 longing for popularity, and I was rather pleased 

 with the flattering interpretation of my project. 

 So lately returned to my own country, after such 

 long and varied experience in a wicked world, I 

 was still a comparatively simple and innocent man, 

 by no means aware of the fact that only unpopular 

 men could be of much use to Ireland. 



The fame of my foundation spread so far that I 

 had some tentative applications on behalf of 

 possible postulants but I noticed that each 

 applicant seemed to imply that I could not 

 entertain more than one, a restriction ill according 

 with the final necessities of such a scheme. With 

 only one postulant and Father Superior, I could 

 not hope to make much of a convent. 



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