acquainted with all the circumstances and secrets, from those of the father to those of the smallest child. "According to the custom universally in vogue, she kept notes of every circumstance which may tend to elucidate the character of the family, never carrying them about her, but depositing them with the mother abbess especially deputed to take charge of them..... Thus did this lay sister continue to go from place to place, from family to family, until she became better acquainted with the politics, the pecuniary means, religious opinions, and whether favorable or not to the propagation of popery in this country, than even the very individuals with whom she associated.... This lay sister, this excellent chambermaid, or lay Jesuist sister, wished to come North to a better climate.... "Americans can be gulled. The _Sisters of Charity_ have always in readiness some friend to supply them with the means of performing _corporeal acts of mercy_. This friend went around to the American families where this chambermaid had lived from time to time, told them she wanted to come as far as Baltimore, that it was a pity to have her travel as a steerage passenger; a person of her virtue and correct deportment should not be placed in a situation where she might be liable to insult and rude treatment.... A handsome purse was soon made up, a cabin passage was engaged, and the young ladies on whom she waited made her presents of every article of dress necessary for her comfort and convenience. She was the depository of all their love stories; she knew the names of their lovers,... and if there were secrets among them they were known to her; and, having made herself acquainted with the secrets of New Orleans, she arrived in Baltimore.... She took possession of a place as soon as convenient, and spent several months in that city.... Having now become acquainted with the secret circumstances of almost every Protestant family of note in Baltimore, and made her report to the mother abbess of the nunnery of her order in that city, she returned to the District of Columbia, and after advising with the mother abbess of the convent, she determined to change her apparent character and apparel.