I had
been silly enough to show my companions the costly jewels which M.
de Chalusse had given me, but which I never wore. And on two
occasions I had proved to them that I had more money at my
disposal than all the other pupils together. If I had been poor,
they would, perhaps, have treated me with affected sympathy; but
as I was rich, I became an enemy. It was war; and one of those
merciless wars which sometimes rage so furiously in convents,
despite their seeming quiet.
"I should surprise you, monsieur, if I told you what refined
torture these daughters of noblemen invented to gratify their
petty spite. I might have complained to the superior, but I
scorned to do so. I buried my sorrow deep in my heart, as I had
done years before; and I firmly resolved never to show ought but a
smiling, placid face, so as to prove to my enemies that they were
powerless to disturb my peace of mind. Study became my refuge and
consolation; and I plunged into work with the energy of despair.
I should probably still live at Sainte-Marthe now, had it not been
for a trivial circumstance. One day I had a quarrel with my most
determined enemy, a girl named Anais de Rochecote. I was a
thousand times right; and I would not yield. The superior dared
not tell me I was wrong. Anais was furious, and wrote I don't
know what falsehoods to her mother. Madame de Rochecote thereupon
interested the mothers of five or six other pupils in her
daughter's quarrel, and one evening these ladies came in a body,
and nobly and courageously demanded that the 'bastard' should be
expelled.
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