They
are not shut up there; it's their business and part of their religion to
go out, and why they should not be willing to come here and do good, as
well as anywhere else, I cannot see, for the life of me."
"Then they objected to the proposition?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied, "they did, and without any reason whatever. I saw
their superior, whom they call Mother Anastasia, and from her I learned
that there were several women in the establishment who were thoroughly
competent to act as secretaries; but when I proposed that one of them
should come and write for you, she said that would not do at all. I
reasoned the matter with her: that literature was as high a profession
as medicine, and as much good could be done with the practice of one as
the other; and if the sisters went out to nurse and to cure, they might
just as well go out to write for those who cannot write for themselves.
To that she answered, it was not the writing she objected to,--that was
all well enough,--but it was decidedly outside of the vocation of the
order for one of the sisters to spend her mornings with a young
gentleman. If he were sick and suffering, and had no one else to attend
to him, it would be different. Upon this, I told her that you would be
sick if you were obliged to do your own writing, and therefore I
couldn't see the difference.
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