VIII 



WINTER QUARTERS SPRINGBROOK 

 SCHOOL A POLITICAL MEETING 



HILARIA and I drove silently out of the convent 

 gates at Le Bret and looked about for inspiration. 

 The nuns would have none of me. The Reverend 

 Mother was courteous, but unyielding. The number 

 of nuns was short, one had been sent away for her 

 health, and none had been sent to take her place. 

 The pupils required much care and attention ; 

 there was none to spare for boarders. She advised 

 me to go on to the old convent, which was then 

 being used as a boarding-house, and was under the 

 care of people she could thoroughly recommend. 



The old boarding-house is not an attractive 

 building, but it is built facing the little church 

 and lake and connecting in line with the cross- 

 crowned hill. The owner was most kind, and offered 

 to partition off for my accommodation the greater 

 part of the old convent nursery, as it was a parti- 

 cularly warm room. My fellow guests would be the 

 public school teacher, one of the masters of the 

 Indian school, and two Frenchmen also employed 

 there. The terms were only four dollars a week, 

 and I think I should have accepted the offer at once, 

 but the windows were very small and very high, 

 so that one could not see anything without deli- 



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