chiefly consisted.  At the communion the superioress stepped forward, wearing the white woolen mantle (which with a purple tunic is the complete dress of this order) and knelt to receive the holy sacrament.  A nun in the same costume, bearing a lighted taper and bowing almost to the ground, stood on each side of her as the priest communicated her, and so on till the whole sisterhood had each knelt separately and the bowing figures, like attendant angels, had done homage to each as the tabernacle, for a time, of the blessed sacrament.  When the mass was over each professed sister solemnly read over the formula of her religious vows before a table on which lay a crucifix, which each reverently kissed in token of rededication of herself to the divine service.

The order of the Good Shepherd is one that is known throughout the world.  It has branch houses in every country.  The one to which I shall specially refer is in New York.  It stands on the banks of the East River, overlooking Astoria and Long Island, and from its top windows the eye reaches far up the Sound.  Like all convents, it is marvelously clean.  The order is devoted to the reclaiming of fallen women, and in this instance the house is a government reformatory.  A certain annual subsidy is guaranteed by the city authorities, but voluntary contributions and the industry of the inmates give more than half toward the real support of the house.  Three sorts of women are under the care of the nuns:  (1) those whom the judges send there as criminals for a specified term; (2) those whom their friends send in hope of their being quietly reformed without the intervention of justice; and (3) those who seek of their own accord to do penance and earn forgiveness for their sins.  This is of course the most hopeful class, and it frequently happens that these penitents become in time permanent inmates, and even nuns.  In the latter case, as the rule of the order does not allow of the reception of any woman with a stain on her reputation, they are clothed in the habit of the Carmelite Third Order (brown serge tunic and black veil), in which the austerities are not very great.  They go through the usual novitiate and make their vows in the regular manner:  they are then called “Magdalens,” and inhabit a portion of the house reserved for them, say their office at stated hours in their own chapel, contiguous to that of the Good Shepherd nuns, and live under obedience to the superioress of the latter.  I saw about a dozen of them taking their evening walk in a pretty enclosed garden by the river-side.  Other women who do not feel inclined to so full a renunciation of their liberty bind themselves by a promise, good for one year only, to the service of the house, and wear a semi-religious kind of cap and a scarlet badge with the letter P or F:  they are divided into two classes, under the patronage of Saint Joseph and Saint Patrick.  They renew the promise from year to year, and often spend their