slumbers. Besides, when that practice prevailed, as it did
formerly, the girls were in the habit of talking to each other upon
subjects which often suggested inconvenient thoughts, even to the best
disposed, and confirmed others in tendencies which eventually grew into
confirmed vices.

On the pupil's retiring to rest, the door of her sleeping-room is
fastened from the outside by one of the matrons. The girl has no means
of opening it herself, but by touching a little spring at the head of
her couch she can at any moment communicate with the matron
night-watchers. These matron night-watchers--two for a certain number
of girls--are on the alert during the night, remaining in a place called
the "watch," where are suspended the electric bells, underneath each of
which is the name of the girl occupying the room to which it
corresponds.

Light is supplied to every dormitory by means of a lamp inserted in the
wall, and opening from the outside. Half an hour after the door has been
closed the matron extinguishes the light, without entering the room. The
external red light of night is also excluded; for, as with you, darkness
is thought much more conducive to refreshing sleep.

In consequence of the warmth of our climate, girls, being naturally
rather luxurious, are not inclined to rise early. They are, however, all
required to rise at the same hour, and this is the mode adopted for
rousing them. At the end of each room, opposite to the sleeping-couch,
is a kind of gong made of metal and formed like a pair of cymbals,
united at the base by a hinge, and kept together by a bolt at the top.

At the hour of rising these cymbals are set in motion by the matron in
the watch room, who touches a spring by which the bolt fastening the
cymbals together is removed. Thereupon the cymbals immediately clash
together, and produce loud discordant sounds. The girl, not liking the
discordant noise, loses no time in stopping it, which is beyond her
power unless she leaves her bed and fixes the bolt that keeps the two
cymbals together.

This done, she goes into an adjoining room, in which are a bath and
other preparations for her ablutions. The door communicating with the
sleeping-room closes of itself, whereupon the matron enters the
apartment, pulls off the bed-clothes, and opens a large skylight at the
top, to admit the fresh air.

The ablutions of all the girls ended, they descend to their repast,
after which they say a very short and s