"I don't know about that particularly. I have never had anything to do
with this department."
"Then, how am I to learn my duties, and get definite orders for the
regulation of my work? Is there no Head Matron, no superior officer in
the women's prison to whom I can go?"
"The Master's wife is enrolled as Head Matron, and receives pay as such,
but she never comes round."
"I would go to her if I knew where to find her."
"I don't think she knows much more about it than you do, if you were to
go to her. We will all tell you."
"But you don't know. If there is a Head Matron, and she is paid for
doing the duties of one, why does she not perform them? Is she enrolled
head officer of this prison merely to obtain the salary? The government
is very obliging to make her office a sinecure."