“Madame de Montbourcher, called Sainte Macaire, kind, stupid, very ugly, believing in ghosts.
“Madame de Fresnes, called Sainte Bathilde, ugly and kind; tells us many stories.”
Fifteen lay sisters performed the service of the blue class.
Though Hélène belonged to the youngest class, she had been temporarily placed in the dormitory of the elder girls—a source of great displeasure to them, as we shall soon see.
“About this time I began to fall ill, from the effects of the Paris water. Monsieur Portal[24] ordered me some powders, and when I was in bed, Madame de Sainte Bathilde, the third mistress of the blue class, used to come with a lay sister in order to make me take them. On one occasion she forgot to give them to me; and on that day the elder girls were going to eat a pasty, and when the door was locked they got up and began to eat by the glimmer of a street lamp. When I saw they were eating I said I wanted some, and that if they did not give me any I should tell. Upon which Mademoiselle d’Equilly brought me a large piece of pie and crust, which I devoured. But Madame de Sainte Bathilde remembered that she had not given me my powder, and got out of bed and brought it me. No sooner did the young ladies hear the key in the lock than they all ran to their beds, and one of them put all the fragments of the pasty into her bed. Then the mistress and Sister Eloi came to my side to give me my powder. As I did not dare to say anything for fear of betraying the girls, I was obliged to swallow the powder, having just eaten a large piece of pie crust.
“When Madame de Sainte Bathilde was gone the girls got up again; they grumbled at me, saying it was insupportable to have a tiresome brat like myself in their room, and then they set to and drank some cider. I called out again for some to be given me, but they would not, because I had just taken a powder, and even Mademoiselle de la Roche Aymon came and slapped me, but I cried so much that at last they were obliged to give me a glass of cider, which I drank off at one draught. Next morning I had violent fever, and was carried to the infirmary. In the night I was delirious, and a putrid fever came on. I was at death’s door, and remained two months at the infirmary.”
After this fine freak the health of the little Princess was considered too delicate for her to undergo the usual education. It was therefore decided to give her separate rooms, a nurse, a maid, and a mie (a nurserymaid), her uncle having written to authorise in advance all necessary expenses.
“My nurse,” she continues, “was called Bathilde Toutevoix, and soon idolised me. I was given a very fine apartment, allowed four louis[25] a month for my pocket money, and nothing was denied me for my keep and my masters. Mr. Tourton, my banker, received an order from my uncle to supply me up to the sum of thirty thousand livres[26] a year if necessary.
“About that time my nurse became very cross with me. We had a cat that was very fond of my nurse, and even of me, for whatever I did to it it never scratched me, though I often put it sufficiently out of temper to make it growl like a mad thing. This cat was called La Grise. Once Mademoiselle de Choiseul and myself were eating some walnuts at the end of the passage leading to the older part of the building; we had seated ourselves on some steps there, when unfortunately La Grise passed by. I called it and it came to us, and while stroking it the idea came into our heads to fasten the nutshells on its paws. Mademoiselle de Choiseul had some ribbon in her netting box, so we carried out our plan, and La Grise was so funny, for it could not stand up. We laughed so loud that my nurse and Madame de Sainte Monique heard us from my room; they came downstairs and found La Grise in this condition. My nurse nearly cried; she scolded me very much and sent me to the schoolroom. But that was not all. La Grise always slept at the foot of my bed, because my nurse thought it would keep me warm. That evening, when my nurse had gone to bed, being cross with La Grise for having got me into disgrace I began kicking it so much that it got off my bed. Then it went to lie down in the fireplace. After a few minutes I put my head out of my curtains to see what it was about, but when I saw its two eyes glistening in the fireplace I was frightened, and thought that if I awoke in the night and saw those eyes I should not know what they were. So I got out of bed, took it up, and not knowing where to put it, gently opened the press and shut it up inside.
“Then the poor Grise began to mew and moan so loud that my nurse got up, not knowing what it could be. She looked about everywhere, and at last discovered La Grise in the press. I was so silly that I maintained I had not put the cat there, and that apparently it had got in by itself.