l square,
and a flock of pigeons were in the church fountain, but there nobody to
direct me to the orphanage. Luckily, I came across an old fairy
squatting and spinning her thread in a corner of her doorway; I told
her what I was looking for, and, so powerful was she, that as she
raised her distaff, the Convent of the Orphans appeared, as if by
magic, before me.... It was a big, black, bleak house, proudly boasting
an old red sandstone cross with a short Latin inscription above its
pointed door arch. I spotted a smaller house next door with grey
shutters, and a back-garden.... I recognised it immediately and went in
without knocking.

The long, cool, quiet entrance hall made a life-long impression on me;
with its pink painted wall, and faded flowers and violins on the
panelling. I saw a small garden shaking about in the wind beyond a
light coloured awning. I seemed to have come to the home of some sort
of antediluvian bailiff.... At the end of the corridor on the left, the
ticking of a large clock could be heard through a half opened door, and
the voice of a school-age child, reading each syllable carefully. Th
... en ... Saint ... I ... re ... naeus ... cri ... ed ... I ... am ...
the ... wh ... eat ... of ... the ... Lord ... I ... mu ... st ... be
... gro ... und ... by ... the ... tee ... th ... of ... th ... ese ...
a ... ni ... mals.... I went gently over to the door and looked in.

In the quiet, and half-light of the small room, there was an old man
with flushed cheeks, and wrinkled to the end of his finger tips. He was
fast asleep, slumped in an armchair, with his mouth open and his hands
on his knees. At his feet was a very young girl dressed all in blue--a
large cape and a small bonnet--the orphanage's uniform. She was reading
the life of St. Irenaeus from a book larger than herself.... This
wonderful reading had a soporific effect on the whole household; the
old man sleeping in his armchair, the flies on the ceiling, and even
the caged canaries in the window. The big clock was quietly grinding
away. Nothing moved in the room, except from within a large band of
white light, which fell from between the closed shutters, which was
full of sparkling movement and microscopic waltzes.... In the midst of
all this general stupor, the child continued her solemn reading: S ...
oon ... two ... lions ... jum ... ped ... on ... him ... and ... de ...
vour ... ed ... him.... Then I appeared.... The actual arrival of the
l