CHAPTER VI.
RECEPTION AT THE ALMSHOUSE.
I WAS now at once made comfortable, and attended with kindness and care. It is not to be expected in such a place, where so many poor and suffering people are collected, and duties of a difficult nature are to be daily performed by those engaged in the care of the institution, that petty vexations should not occur to individuals of all descriptions.
But in spite of all, I received kindness and sympathy from several persons around me, to whom I feel thankful.
I was standing one day at the window of the room number twenty-six, which is at the end of the hospital building, when I saw a spot I once visited in a little walk I took from my hiding-place. My feelings were different now in some respects, from what they had been; for, though I suffered much from my fears of my future punishment for the sin of breaking convent vows, I had given up the intention of destroying my life. (Maria Monk here repeats her confession to the Rev. Mr. Tappin, Chaplain of the Almshouse, as in pages 136 to 141.)
I made some nasty notes of the thoughts to which it gave rise in my mind, and often recurred to the subject. Yet I sometimes questioned the justice of the views I began to entertain, and was ready to condemn myself for giving my mind any liberty to seek for information concerning the foundation of my former faith.
