t a
little girl like me must not be alone with Colette. I could never
understand why. I noticed that every time one of the big girls gave
her her arm to help her to walk about a little, three or four other
girls always came up and talked and laughed with them. I thought that
she had no friends. A feeling of great pity drew me to her, and one
day when she was all alone I asked her to take my arm for a little
walk. I was standing in front of her timidly, but I knew that she
would not refuse. She looked at me and said, "You know it is not
allowed." I nodded "Yes." She looked at me again. "Aren't you afraid
of being punished?" she said. I shook my head to say "No." I wanted
to cry and it made my throat feel tight. I helped her to get up. She
leaned on her stick with one hand and put all her weight on my
shoulder. I could see how difficult it was for her to walk. She did
not say a word to me while we were walking, and when I had taken her
back to her bench she looked at me and said, "Thank you, Marie Claire."
When she saw me with Colette, Bonne Justine raised her arms to heaven
and made the sign of the cross. At the other end of the playground
Madeleine shook her fist at me and shouted.

When evening came I saw that Sister Marie-Aimee knew what I had done,
but she never said a word about it. At recreation next day she drew me
towards her, took my head in her two hands and bent towards me. She
didn't say anything to me, but her eyes plunged right into my face. I
felt as though I were wrapped up in her eyes. I felt as though a soft
warmth was all round me, and I felt comfortable. She gave me a long
kiss on the forehead, then smiled at me and said, "There. You are my
beautiful white lily." I thought her so beautiful, and her eyes shone
so with several colours in them, that I said to her, "And you, too,
mother; you are a lovely flower." She said in an off-hand way, "Yes;
but I don't count among the lilies now." Then she said almost roughly,
"Don't you love Ismerie any more?" "Yes, mother." "Really. Then what
about Colette?" "I love Colette too." "Oh, you love everybody!" she
said.

I used to give Colette my arm nearly every day. She never talked to me
much, and then only about the other girls. When I sat down next to her
she used to look at me queerly. She said she thought I was a queer
little thing. One day she asked me if I thought her pretty. Directly
she said it, I remembered