never shall I forget my first taste of joy that day.
[25]
]
Chapter II.
The Convent School
My father’s extreme severity made me rather glad when in about a week’s time Miss Birch began to make preparations for my departure to Belgium, and in less than three weeks I found myself installed as a pupil in the seminary of the Ursuline nuns at Brussels. The Lady Superior struck me from the very first as being a frightfully severe woman; the morning after [26] ]my arrival she sent for me to hear her read my father’s instructions, and remarked that he had given her carte blanche
as to punishment, and that in their school discipline was strictly enforced. “Remember, young lady,” said she, in dismissing me from her presence
, “we never overlook a fault, and that my word is law here.”
My face flushed with indignation, and tears filled my eyes as I left the apartment, fully assured in my own mind that I must soon experience a taste of their discipline, nor had I long to wait, for two days after, having confidentially expressed my disgust to another pupil, with respect to the coarse fare set before us at meals, I soon found I had been talking to a tell-tale spy, who carried everything to the Superior.
An elderly nun quietly told me she had been sent to conduct me to the private room of the Lady Superior. My time was come, and I followed my chaperone with trembling anxiety.