"Then, how am I to learn my duties, and get definite orders for the regulation of my work? Is there no Head Matron, no superior officer in the women's prison to whom I can go?"
"The Master's wife is enrolled as Head Matron, and receives pay as such, but she never comes round."
"I would go to her if I knew where to find her."
"I don't think she knows much more about it than you do, if you were to go to her. We will all tell you."
"But you don't know. If there is a Head Matron, and she is paid for doing the duties of one, why does she not perform them? Is she enrolled head officer of this prison merely to obtain the salary? The government is very obliging to make her office a sinecure."
I was already perplexed—I was beginning to get vexed.
"Her husband does them for her, perhaps."
"Perhaps! Then why is he not here, to tell me the work which belongs to each woman, and how she is to do it; what work is required, and how I am to get my things to do with? But how can the Master attend to his own duties and those of the Head Matron too?"
"The Deputy will tell you."
"He must have his own duties to attend to—how can he perform hers? He is just as willing to tell me as you are, and I don't think he knows any more about my place than you do."