care of me, and bringing me in safety back to that retreat. I requested
that I might be secured against the reproaches and ridicule of all the
novices and nuns, which I thought some might be disposed to cast upon me
unless prohibited by the Superior; and this she promised me. The money
usually required for the admission of novices had not been expected from
me. I had been admitted the first time without any such requisition; but
now I chose to pay it for my re-admission. I knew that she was able to
dispense with such a demand as well in this as the former case, and she
knew that I was not in possession of any thing like the sum required.

But I was bent on paying to the Nunnery, and accustomed to receive the
doctrine often repeated to me before that time, that when the advantage
of the church was consulted, the steps taken were justifiable, let them
be what they would, I therefore resolved to obtain money on false
pretences, confident that if all were known, I should be far from
displeasing the Superior. I went to the brigade major, and asked him to
give me the money payable to my mother from her pension, which amounted
to about thirty dollars, and without questioning my authority to receive
it in her name, he gave it me.

From several of her friends I obtained small sums under the name of
loans, so that altogether I had soon raised a number of pounds, with
which I hastened to the nunnery, and deposited a part in the hands of
the Superior. She received the money with evident satisfaction, though
she must have known that I could not have obtained it honestly; and I
was at once re-admitted as a novice.

Much to my gratification, not a word fell from the lips of any of my old
associates in relation to my unceremonious departure, nor my voluntary
return. The Superior's orders, I had not a doubt, had been explicitly