"What will you do with them, Reverend Mother? Shall they be publicly expelled?"
"Ragna, as she has confessed, will be 'excused' from further walks outside the Convent; Astrid, for having concealed the letters will be kept at home also. You, ma Mère, will see that no word of this business gets about among the girls—I wish no one to speak of it, no one."
Mère Perpétua was a study in pained amazement.
"What!" she burst forth. "No adequate punishment? Nothing to put that brazen girl to shame for her indecent conduct? She stands here in your presence and admits to having received the letters, and answered them, to having corrupted her companion, as she might say: 'I have said thirty Aves'! Oh Reverend Mother, you are too lenient! It is unjust!"
"So that is how you understand it, ma Mère? Has life taught you nothing?"
"Life has taught me that sin requires punishment," she rejoined grimly.
"Ma Mère, I see that I must open your eyes; those letters were not written to Ragna."
"Not written to her! Why she confessed that they were hers!"
"So she did, to save Astrid."
"Well, that only makes it worse, she has lied outrageously, and so has Astrid—and you let them go unpunished!"