he sky, its superb azure {51}
vault splendidly outlined from the bluish dawn far behind the Pont du
Change, to the sunset gilded with a faint purplish lustre behind the
trees of the Champs Elysees and the houses of Chaillot."

Irritated with the obscurity to which she was condemned by fate, there
was but one resource which could have consoled her for the social
inequalities which bruised her vanity and her pride. That resource
would have been religion. Nothing but an ideal of humility could have
appeased the interior revolts of this soul of fire. To such a woman,
what is lacking is heaven. Earth, no matter what happens, can give her
nothing but deceptions. The only moment of her life when she felt
herself really happy was that when she enjoyed the supreme good, peace
of heart. Of all parts of her Memoirs, the most pure and touching are
those she devotes to her recollections of the convent. One might think
that the author of _Rolla_ had remembered them when he described in
such penetrating terms the mystic poetry of the cloister, and the
regrets often engendered by the loss of faith in the minds and hearts
of people who have become unbelievers.

The little Philipon, being in her twelfth year, asked to be sent to a
convent, in order to prepare better for her first communion. She was
placed with the Ladies of the Congregation, rue Neuve-Saint-Etienne, in
the Faubourg Saint-Marcel, near Sainte-Pelagie, her future prison: "How
I pressed my dear mamma in my arms at the moment of parting {52} from
her for the first time! I was stifled, overwhelmed; but I obeyed the
voice of God, and crossed the threshold of the cloister, offering Him
with tears the greatest sacrifice that I could make. The first night I
spent at the convent was agitated: I was no longer under the paternal
roof. I felt that I was far from that good mother who was surely
thinking of me with tenderness. There was a feeble light in the room
where I had been put to bed, with four other children of my own age; I
rose quietly and went to the window. The moonlight permitted me to see
the garden upon which it looked. The most profound silence reigned; I
listened to it, so to say, with a sort of respect; great trees cast
their gigantic shadows here and there, and promised a safe refuge for
tranquil meditation. I lifted my eyes to the pure and serene sky, and
thought I felt the presence of the Divinity, who smiled at my sacrifice
and already offered me it