This, then, was my first glimpse of the garden; but I had not time to look long, the
portress, after having answered in the affirmative my question as to whether her mistress was at home, opened the folding-doors of a room to the left, and having ushered me in, closed them behind me.
'Miss Minnie is not down yet, gentlemen,' said the blushing
portress, as they all came together in the garden.
The first thing she said to me, 'I wouldn't have recognized you, Rita,' and I said, 'What a funny dress you have, Therese, more fit for the
portress of a convent than for this house.' - 'Yes,' she said, 'and unless you give this house to me, Rita, I will go back to our country.
The
portress could not tell him whether Madame de Cintre was visible; he would please to apply at the farther door.
Evidence was heard from Dr Hall and a
portress as to Alice's condition on being taken to the workhouse.
Bertram (Philadelphia, Pa.:
Portress Press, 1971), 273.
His harrowing encounter with the aged
Portress ends with him
The abbess held one key while the
portress kept the other; the Clares took their vows of enclosure very seriously.
Indeed, the uniformed youth draws Charlotte's gaze and causes a scene with the
portress at their hotel:
According to Chapter 12, 'Concerning Silence', four of the more religious and discreet sisters must be present at the window in the parlour, and during the hours forbidden for speaking the parlour is to be locked with a key that is kept by the
portress. (70) The allocation of the custody of the parlour key to the
portress may suggest that the room where sisters could communicate with outsiders was located close to the entrance.
For the next few years Rosa served as a
portress of the Carmelite monastery in Echt.
the tale of Sin, the "
Portress of Hell Gate," who is
