Monsieur Bourais assisted her in the choice of a college.
The one at Caen was considered the best. So Paul
was sent away and bravely said good-bye to them all,
for he was glad to go to live in a house where he
would have boy companions.
Madame Aubain resigned herself to the separation from
her son because it was unavoidable. Virginia
brooded less and less over it. Felicite regretted
the noise he made, but soon a new occupation diverted
her mind; beginning from Christmas, she accompanied
the little girl to her catechism lesson every day.
After she had made a curtsey at the threshold, she
would walk up the aisle between the double lines of
chairs, open Madame Aubain’s pew, sit down and
look around.
Girls and boys, the former on the right, the latter
on the left-hand side of the church, filled the stalls
of the choir; the priest stood beside the reading-desk;
on one stained window of the side-aisle the Holy Ghost
hovered over the Virgin; on another one, Mary knelt
before the Child Jesus, and behind the alter, a wooden
group represented Saint Michael felling the dragon.
The priest first read a condensed lesson of sacred
history. Felicite evoked Paradise, the Flood,
the Tower of Babel, the blazing cities, the dying
nations, the shattered idols; and out of this she developed
a great respect for the Almighty and a great fear
of His wrath. Then, when she had listened to
the Passion, she wept. Why had they crucified
Him who loved little children, nourished the people,
made the blind see, and who, out of humility, had
wished to be born among the poor, in a stable?
The sowings, the harvests, the wine-presses, all those
familiar things which the Scriptures mention, formed
a part of her life; the word of God sanctified them;
and she loved the lambs with increased tenderness for
the sake of the Lamb, and the doves because of the
Holy Ghost.
She found it hard, however, to think of the latter
as a person, for was it not a bird, a flame, and sometimes
only a breath? Perhaps it is its light that at
night hovers over swamps, its breath that propels the
clouds, its voice that renders church-bells harmonious.
And Felicite worshipped devoutly, while enjoying the
coolness and the stillness of the church.
As for the dogma, she could not understand it and
did not even try. The priest discoursed, the
children recited, and she went to sleep, only to awaken
with a start when they were leaving the church and
their wooden shoes clattered on the stone pavement.
In this way, she learned her catechism, her religious
education having been neglected in her youth; and
thenceforth she imitated all Virginia’s religious
practices, fasted when she did, and went to confession
with her. At the Corpus-Christi Day they both
decorated an altar.
She worried in advance over Virginia’s first
communion. She fussed about the shoes, the rosary,
the book and the gloves. With what nervousness
she helped the mother dress the child!
