country, entitled, Les Petites Soeurs des Pauvres (_Little Sisterhood
for the Poor_). They have been in this house only for a few months,
but are already fully engaged in the business to which they have
devoted themselves--which is the care and nurture of infirm and
destitute old women. The extraordinary thing is that the Sisters,
though most of them are in their education and previous habits
_ladies_, literally go about begging for the means of maintaining
these poor people. Everything is done, indeed, by begging; for on
entering the sisterhood they renounce all earthly possessions. They
have begged the means of furnishing their house, and paying their
rent, which is not an inconsiderable sum; they daily beg for the food,
clothes, and cordials required for themselves and the objects of their
charity. What is even more singular, these ladies in all respects
_serve_ the old women, wash for them, cook for them, act as their
nurses. They treat themselves less kindly, for out of the broken
victuals on which exclusively the house is supported, the old women
always get the first selection, and the ladies only the remaining
scraps. It is altogether the most striking example of self-denial and
self-devotion which has ever happened to fall under our attention in
this country.

We were received in a faded old dining-room, by a Sister whose age
surprised us, for she did not appear to be above five-and-twenty. Her
dress consisted of coarse black serge, and a linen cap, such as is
worn by poor old women in the country. She was evidently a
well-educated and refined English lady, who, under a different
impulse, might have very probably been indulging at this moment in the
gaieties of Almacks. With great courtesy, but without for a moment
departing from the serious manner in which she had first addressed us,
she conducted us through the house, and explained its various