A bell rang. The inspectors, deeply moved, said, "We must bid you good-bye, Madame...."
They went as far as a door with me. I shook hands with them and said, "Courage, courage; we shall all know the truth soon."
Then I was taken to another room. There was green furniture in it; the ceiling was low. It was not a beautiful room, but it was most comfortable. I saw a small man of about forty-five, with a strong face, blue eyes, fair hair, and a pointed beard, and some one said, "That is Monsieur le Directeur."
"So it is you who are putting me here?"... I said. "That is a nice old arm-chair...." I was convinced that I should be given a room like this one.
The director spoke softly, in gentle tones. He rang a bell. A gardien came with a "sister." She wore a black dress, and a great white cornette encircled her kind, strong face. She looked about fifty. Afterwards I learned her name; Sœur Léonide, and it was one of the names I learned at Saint-Lazare which I shall never forget and which I bless day after day.
She has since told me that the first words I said to her, when she entered the director's room, were: "It is I, ma sœur; it is strange, is it not, that it should be I?"...
I followed her, I began to be surprised, almost alarmed. She took me through a long, long passage. At the end, there was a bed in an angle. A man was there, he took up some large keys, and opened the door. The sister took me by the hand and said: "It is a little dark...."
"How ugly and damp it is here, ma sœur".... I held the bannister: "It reminds me," I said, "of those in the old houses at Montbéliard, near my dear Beaucourt."
We came to another door. There I saw a sister sitting at a small desk in a room where the windows had big iron bars. I felt frightened. We went down another long passage, and came to a high gate which the sister opened.
"Where are we going, ma sœur? Everything is so dirty and dark. Are we going the right way?"