My brother and I were both sent to day-schools. The maid Catherine
always took me to school after breakfast, and came to fetch me home
about four o'clock in the afternoon. Those were happy times. With what
joy I used to return to the palace, bounding into my grandmother's
apartment on the ground floor, sometimes to frighten her, leaping in at
the window and dropping at her feet, the old lady scolding and laughing
at the same time. My grandmother was, as I observed, religious, but she
was not a devotee. The great object was to instil into me a love of
truth, and in this she was indefatigable. When I did wrong, it was not
the fault I had committed which caused her concern; it was the fear that
I should deny it, which worried and alarmed her. To prevent this, the
old lady had a curious method--she dreamed for my benefit. If I had
done wrong, and she suspected me, she would not accuse me until she had
made such inquiries as convinced her that I was the guilty person; and
then, perhaps, the next morning, she would say, as I stood by her side:
"Valerie, I had a dream last night; I can't get it out of my head. I
dreamt that my little girl had forgotten her promise to me, and when she
went to the store-room had eaten a large piece of the cake."

She would fix her eyes upon me as she narrated the events of her dream,
and, as she proceeded, my face would be covered with blushes, and my
eyes cast down in confusion; I dared not look at her, and by the time
that she had finished, I was down on my knees, with my face buried in
her lap. If my offence was great, I had to say my prayers, and implore
the Divine forgiveness, and was sent to prison, that is, locked up for a
few hours in my bedroom. Catherine, the maid, had been many years with
my grandmother, and was, to a certain degree, a privileged person; at
all events, she considered herself warranted in giving her opinion, and
grumbling as much as she pleased, and such was invariably the case
whenever I was locked up. "_Toujours en prison, cette pauvre petite_.
It is too bad, madam; you must let her out." My grandmother would
quietly reply, "Catherine, you are a good woman, but you understand
nothing about the education of children." Sometimes, however, she
obtained the key from my grandmother, and I was released sooner than was
originally intended.

The fact is, that being put in prison was a very heavy punishment, as it
invariably took place in the evenings, after my