s the first step of progress; that
improvement really begins when one hears and sees himself.

Manna's eyes beamed softly, and she asked Aunt Claudine if this
standing up alone by one's self in the world had not often been very
hard for her.

"Certainly, my child. When one in youth makes a decision that affects
the whole life, he does not know the real meaning of it."

Manna grasped convulsively the cross upon her bosom, and the Aunt
continued:--

"Yes, my child, it requires courage and energy to be an old maid; at
the time this resolution is taken, one is not fully conscious of how
much it will require. Now, when I am alone, I am contented and
peaceful; but in society and the world, I seem to myself often so
superfluous, and as if only tolerated out of pity. Yes, my child, and
one must take care not to be compassionate and sentimental towards
one's self, or bitter; for the pitying of one's self often leads to
bitterness and resentfulness."

"I can comprehend that," returned Manna. "Did you never have a longing
to be able to enter a convent?"

"My child, I would not like to mislead and disturb you."

"No, say what you please, I can hear it all."

"Well, then, there are some institutions productive of so much harm,
that they have forfeited the right of being perpetuated, at least, as
we regard it. And, dear child, I could not, myself, live without art,
without secular music, without the sight of what the plastic arts have
produced and are still producing; herein I agree fully with my
brother."

Manna looked in amazement at the Aunt; and she had the impression that
a new view of life was unfolded to her, that was like the religious,
and yet wholly peculiar in itself.

Towards Eric's mother. Manna was respectful but reserved. She treated
her brother's teacher as a member of the family, but as a piece of
property, an object, of utility, to which one could have recourse
whenever there was need. There were hours and days when she had no more
to do with him than if he had been a chair or a table. She often put a
question to him directly and naturally, if she wanted any particular
thing elucidated; and as soon as Eric began to expatiate beyond the
special topic under consideration, she would say with great decision:--

"I did not want to know about that. I thank you for the information you
have given."

She never received any instruction for which she did not immediately
thank him, just as she would a servant fo