House and Garden 
tically a desert. It was once the Ursuline 
Convent, and was built when hand-work 
held undisputed sway. Here are found 
great complicated bolts and locks and, in 
the wide wooden stairway, hand-made nails; 
as good, the old janitor will tell you, as when 
they were first driven in. An air of perfect 
peace reigns over the place. No bustle of 
busy housewife, but only the droning tones 
of the keeper, breaks the quiet. It looks 
ascetically clean. The wide brick walks are 
free of grass and duly reddened, and the 
galleries and halls are freshly scrubbed. 
Unlike the big house in Ascension, there 
does not smile a welcome on the guest, for 
Spanish daggers guard the doorway with a 
meaning look. Built by the French, in the 
early days of the French domination, Span¬ 
ish austerity, as remembered in Cerillo and 
Pere Antoine, replaces the joviality of Dago- 
bert, and seems to ward off' the intruder here. 
Now and then, down the broad walk a priest 
passes reading his breviary; or up the walk 
a daring matron or shrinking maiden pass 
in quest of spiritual consolation or advice. 
The visitor is greeted cordially, but the glory of 
its garden has faded and its romance destroyed 
in the material atmosphere of the present day. 
Old Plantation House, Ascension Parish 
263 
