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第4章 卖参论英雄

　　'Is it all over?' she asked, looking down at my face. 'Have youcried your grief away?'

　　CHAPTER III

　　'The child is very young to be sent alone,' said she, putting hercandle down on the table. She considered me attentively for a minuteor two, then further added-

　　'Your name, little girl?'

　　'Because fifteen pounds is not enough for board and teaching, andthe deficiency is supplied by subscription.'

　　'The one with red cheeks is called Miss Smith; she attends to thework, and cuts out- for we make our own clothes, our frocks, andpelisses, and everything; the little one with black hair is MissScatcherd; she teaches history and grammar, and hears the second classrepetitions; and the one who wears a shawl, and has apocket-handkerchief tied to her side with a yellow ribband, isMadame Pierrot: she comes from Lisle, in France, and teaches French.'

　　'That proves you have a wicked heart; and you must pray to God tochange it: to give you a new and clean one: to take away your heart ofstone and give you a heart of flesh.'

　　'Yes.'

　　'Madam,' he pursued, 'I have a Master to serve whose kingdom is notof this world: my mission is to mortify in these girls the lusts ofthe flesh; to teach them to clothe themselves with shame-facedness andsobriety, not with braided hair and costly apparel; and each of theyoung persons before us has a string of hair twisted in plaits whichvanity itself might have woven; these, I repeat, must be cut off;think of the time wasted, of-'