This must appear an odd desire for a
mother superior of a religious body, but it is founded on an earnest and
conscientious regard for the true welfare of my young friend.
"And then there was another reason for my allowing her to come to you.
You would smile if you could picture to yourself the mental image I had
formed of you, which was founded entirely on your grandmother's remarks
when she came to see me about engaging one of our sisters as your
secretary. Before this matter was discussed I may have seen you in the
village, but I never had known you even by sight, and from what that
good lady said of you I supposed that you were decidedly middle-aged in
feeling, if not in years; that you were extremely grave and studious,
and wished, when engaged upon literary composition, to be entirely
oblivious of your surroundings; and that you desired an amanuensis who
should be simply a writing-machine,--who would in no way annoy you by
intruding upon you any evidence that she possessed a personality. A
sister from our House, your grandmother urged, would be the very person
you needed, and infinitely better suited to the position than the
somewhat frivolous young women who very often occupy positions as
amanuenses.
"It was for these reasons that I sent Sylvia to write at the dictation
of the sedate author of the forthcoming book on European travel.
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