"Oh, yes, mother!" I replied, "I love him with all my soul"; and she said
she was happy to hear it. Then I directed Joseph to go and request
Monsieur the curé, in my name, to give him lessons in reading and writing,
in order to be able to read the letters that I should write to my
nurse-mother and to answer them. This order was carried out to the letter,
and six months later Joseph was the correspondent of the family and read
to them my letters. That was his whole happiness.

I had been quite content to leave for Paris: first, because Abner went
with me, and then because I hoped to see a little of all those beautiful
things of which he had spoken to me with so much charm; but how was I
disappointed! My mother kept me but one day at her house, and did not even
allow Abner to come to see me. During that day I must, she said, collect
my thoughts preparatory to entering the convent. For it was actually to
the convent of the Ursulines, of which my father's sister was the
superior, that she conducted me next day.

Think of it, dear girls! I was fourteen, but not bigger than a lass of
ten, used to the open air and to the caresses of mother Catharine and my
brothers. It seemed to me as if I were a poor little bird shut in a great
dark cage.

My aunt, the abbess, Agnes de Morainville, took me to her room, gave me
bonbons and pictures, told me stories, and kissed and caressed me, but her
black gown and her bonnet appalled me, and I cried with all my might:

"I want mother Catharine! I want Joseph! I want Bastien!"

My aunt, in despair, sent for three or four little pupils to amuse me; but
this was labor lost, and I continued to utter the same outcries. At last,