THE ESCAPED NUN

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 2, 28 September 1920, Page 5

THE ESCAPED NUN

TELLS HER STORY APPEALS TO BE LET ALONE "Sister Ligouri is dead; she died when I «nt my resignation to the Bishop of Wagga; 1 am now a free girl in a free country; why can't they leave me in peace and lot me have the rest that I so much need?" Thus spoke Miss Partridge to a Sydney "Herald" representative. She was plainly but becomingly attired in a navy bluo dress, with a hairline running through the material, and about her neck was a plain white lace collar with a black velvet bow in front. Her hair is 'beginning to curl at the back, whilst at the front it is almost long enough to brash into a graceful form. Her face has a certain wistful 'beauty, and her eyes have an earnest expression; seeming; to suggest that she is trying to ascertain whether those she is encountering come in the guise of friend or foe. Physically sho appears in normal health, but her nerves aro shattered; and a ring at the door makes her involuntarily start, like a soldier who has had shell shock when he hears a loud explosion. Mentally she is bright and alert. She talked in a cheery, easy manner of her happy girlhood days around Tho Curragk, in county Kildare, of her visits to the towns of Kildare and Newbridge and to Dublin; and of how she came out as a girl of 18 to Australia, and later joined tho Sisters of the Presentation' Order. Of what happened there she prefers to say but little. It troubles her, sho says, like a bad dream; but she does not wish to have tho effects of it on her mind indefinitely during her waking hours.' She has evidently reasoned matters out carefully and clearly in her own mind; and, despite the days and years spent in almost solitary confine-, nient, has a large amount of shrewd common sense which prompts her to ask many pertinont questions regarding nor past and preseirTpositions. She discussed her stay at the Darlinghurst homo. "I was put there because they said I was mad, and a telegram was sent to my Brother from the convent asking him to come to mo as 1 had gone mad. My brother told me of that telegram. Hud it been sent to my parents at home it would have killed .them. But while I was in the home on tlie charge of being a lunatic 1 was told by Father Murphy that the Bishop had nothing against me; and that he and the Mother Superior wanted to see me when it was all over, and that then I would lie able to go where i liked. But why were they so anxious that I should promise to go to them when they would not come to see me, and when they wanted to get me locked up as a lunatic? "Yea" sho said, and with some emphasis, "it is quite true I have askedmy brother to remain away and not to bother m© any more. Ido not trust him now. He said he wanted to take mo away, and every time he talked ot it he had some different place to take me to, and when I asked him why these ohanges ho said ho was not free. Asked how her brother received her. at first Miss Partridge said, that after his arrival he seemed glad to see her, and to treat her as a brothor should. "But," she said, "after n few days his attitude changed. He said he lad seen the Bishop and had learned that I was not free from my vows; that I would have to see the Bishop, and *nat no would give.me a dispensation, and that then wo could arrange to go home to Ireland, or any whero I liked. He seemed to think that I should go back to a convent, but I told him plainly that I had douo with convent life for good Pointing to a letter ready for tho post and addressed to her brother, Mies Partridgo added, "I have written to him telling him that I am amongst friends, and that I will stay with them until I get 6trong again, and then I will decide tor myself what I am to do Hi, the future." And with a. wan smile but with a touch of Irish humour she enid, as if in an afterthought, 'After all, I am older than ho is, and should bo ablo to decide my own future. If ho wants to go back home, well, let him, and maybe he will learn a little sense. He> does not seem to havo enough sense to know that he is being fooled and made a tool of at present. In any case, he need not worry about mo. I would be afraid to travel with him now; and if I want to go homo to Ireland when I am well again I nave plenty of frionds who will see me there safelv." , . And when saying good-bye sue made a final appeal that people should cense to think of her as an ex-sister of the Presentation Order. "The Bi'brm and tho Mother Superior have said that I was free to resign, and go where T will. I have resigned, and now all I want is peaco and ruiiotno.-s and liberty to go where I wish unmolested."