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 always careful—careful beyond anything you could guess of carefulness! She has long wished for me to become a nun."

"What!" he exclaimed. "You aren't in earnest?"

But he saw that she was, and he knew too that what she was telling him must be true; her eyes were wholly truthful and so was her voice. "Mademoiselle Daurel believes that only as a nun could I make my soul safe for purgatory," she said. "You see it has been unfortunate that gentlemen sometimes think me worth speaking to. And whenever she discovered that they did and that I answered them—well, she would pray for me all night! That, I could endure; but unfortunately she would make me pray with her. What horrible nights!"

"Make you?" he said. "How could she make you?"

At this she coloured a little and looked down. "I hoped—well, I must be frank. In part it was inertia and the habit of friendship; people you are with a long time can make you do a great deal; you bear many things rather than quarrel. But in part I own to you that it was—well, it wasn't noble. Both of them adored Hyacinthe, and they have no nephews or nieces. You see, I hoped they might think of