refore not to place such items in their way, just as I would
''keep my rings and trinkets hidden from the eyes of a servant, so as not to worry her
with the prospect of the taking of them''.
She said, too, that I must take care in how I speak to the women. I must tell
them nothing of the world beyond the prison walls, nothing of what happens in it,
not even so much as a notice from a newspaper—especially not that, she said,
indeed, ''for newspapers are forbidden here''. She said I might find a woman seeking
me out as an intimate, a counsellor; and if she does that, then I must counsel her
''as her matron would—that is, in thinking shamefully on her crime, and in
making her future life a better one''. But I must make no woman any kind of
promises while she is kept in the gaol; nor must I carry objects or information
between a woman and her family or friends outside.
''If a prisoner were to tell you that her mother was ill and about to die,'' she said;
''if she were to cut off a lock of her hair and plead with you to take it, as a token, to
the dying woman, you must refuse it. For take it, Miss Prior, and the prisoner will
have you in her power. She will hold the knowledge against you, and use it to
make all manner of mischief.''
She said there had been one or two notorious cases like that, in her time at