CHAPTER V


LETTER OF THE LADY SUPERIOR

"Your ladyship will forgive the brevity of my present letter. The public
examinations are but just concluded, and I have to communicate to all
the parents and guardians the progress which our pupils have made during
the past year. To you I may well be brief, having to say much in few
words. Your ladyship's daughter has proved herself first in every sense
of the word. The testimonials which I inclose, and her own letter, in
which she will detail to you the prizes which she has won, and the
happiness which she feels in her success, will surely please, and I hope
delight you. For myself, it is the less necessary that I should say
much, because I see that there will soon be no more occasion to keep
with us a young lady so far advanced. I send my respects to your
ladyship, and in a short time I shall take the liberty of offering you
my opinion as to what in future may be of most advantage to her.

"My good assistant will tell you about Ottilie."

LETTER OF THE ASSISTANT.

"Our reverend superior leaves it to me to write to you of Ottilie,
partly because, with her ways of thinking about it, it would be painful
to her to say what has to be said; partly, because she herself requires
some excusing, which she would rather have done for her by me.

"Knowing, as I did too well, how little able the good Ottilie was to