But it is not so with woman; in the very nature of things it cannot be.

Methinks these Nunneries would serve a better purpose were they schools from which to send women forth into the world to be good wives and mothers, rather than store-houses filled with sad samples of Nature's great purposes deliberately unfulfilled." The merry schoolboy look had vanished.

The Bishop's eyes were stern and searching; yet he looked not on the Prioress as he spoke.
Amazement was writ larger than ever, on her face; but she held herself well under control.
"Such views, my lord, if freely expressed and adopted, would change the entire monastic system." "I know it," said the Bishop.

"And I would not express them, saving to you and to one other, to whom I also talk freely.

But the older I grow, the more clearly do I see that systems are man-made, and therefore often mistaken, injurious, pernicious.