e had been feasting there last week because Henri
Deslois was married. I heard him say a few words more which I didn't
understand. Then the daylight in the kitchen turned into black night,
and I felt the tiles give way under my feet and drag me down into a
bottomless hole. I remember Sister Desiree-des-Anges coming to help
me, but an animal had fastened itself on my chest. It made a dreadful
sound which it hurt me to hear. It was like a horrible sob which
always stopped at the same place. Then the light came back again, and
I could see above me the faces of Sister Desiree-des-Anges and Melanie.
Both were smiling anxiously, and Melanie's broad, red face looked like
Sister Desiree-des-Anges' pointed pale one. I sat up in bed, wondering
why I was there by daylight, but I didn't get up. I remembered little
Jean le Rouge, and for hours and hours I fought with my pain.

When Sister Desiree-des-Anges came into the room at bedtime she sat
down on the foot of my bed. She put her two hands together like the
saints did. "Tell me of your sorrow," she said. I told her, and it
seemed to me that every word I spoke took some of my suffering away
with it.

When I had told her everything, Sister Desiree-des-Anges fetched "The
Imitation of Jesus Christ," and began to read aloud. She read in a
gentle and resigned voice, and there were words which sounded like the
end of a moan.

On the days which followed, I saw little Jean le Rouge again. He told
me some more about the Lost Ford, and while he said how happy his
parents were and how kind the master was to them, I could see the house
on the hill with its garden in flower, and its spring from which the
little brooklets crawled down to the river, hiding themselves under the
broom. I often spoke of it to Sister Desiree-des-Anges, who listened
to me meditatively. She knew the neighbourhood and every corner of the
place, and one evening, when she sat dreaming and I asked her what she
was thinking about, she said, "Summer will be over soon, and I was
thinking that the trees were full of fruit."

During the month of September a number of religious paid visits to the
Mother Superior. Ox Eye used to ring the bell to announce them. Every
time she rang Veronique went out to see who was coming in. She always
had something disagreeable to say about each one of the sisters whom
she recognized. One evening the bell sounded. Veronique, who was
looking out, said, "Well, here'