By the end of the second period of Pierrette’s stay in Provins life had become so hard for her, the cold indifference of all who came to the house, the silly fault-finding, and the total absence of affection on the part of her cousins grew so bitter, she was conscious of a chill dampness like that of a grave creeping round her, that the bold idea of escaping, on foot and without money, to Brittany and to her grandparents took possession of her mind.  Two events hindered her from attempting it.  Old Lorrain died, and Rogron was appointed guardian of his little cousin.  If the grandmother had died first, we may believe that Rogron, advised by Vinet, would have claimed Pierrette’s eight thousand francs and reduced the old man to penury.

“You may, perhaps, inherit from Pierrette,” said Vinet, with a horrid smile.  “Who knows who may live and who may die?”

Enlightened by that remark, Rogron gave old Madame Lorrain no peace until she had secured to Pierrette the reversion of the eight thousand francs at her death.

Pierrette was deeply shocked by these events.  She was on the point of making her first communion,—­another reason for resigning the hope of escape from Provins.  This ceremony, simple and customary as it was, led to great changes in the Rogron household.  Sylvie learned that Monsieur le cure Peroux was instructing the little Julliards, Lesourds, Garcelands, and the rest.  She therefore made it a point of honor that Pierrette should be instructed by the vicar himself, Monsieur Habert, a priest who was thought to belong to the Congregation, very zealous for the interests of the Church, and much feared in Provins,—­a man who hid a vast ambition beneath the austerity of stern principles.  The sister of this priest, an unmarried woman about thirty years of age, kept a school for young ladies.  Brother and sister looked alike; both were thin, yellow, black-haired, and bilious.

Like a true Breton girl, cradled in the practices and poetry of Catholicism, Pierrette opened her heart and ears to the words of this imposing priest.  Sufferings predispose the mind to devotion, and nearly all young girls, impelled by instinctive tenderness, are inclined to mysticism, the deepest aspect of religion.  The priest found good soil in which to sow the seed of the Gospel and the dogmas of the Church.  He completely changed the current of the girl’s thoughts.  Pierrette loved Jesus Christ in the light in which he is presented to young girls at the time of their first communion, as a celestial bridegroom; her physical and moral sufferings gained a meaning for her; she saw the finger of God in all things.  Her soul, so cruelly hurt although she could not accuse her cousins of actual wrong, took refuge in that sphere to which all sufferers fly on the wings of the cardinal virtues,—­Faith, Hope, Charity.  She abandoned her thoughts of escape.  Sylvie, surprised by the transformation Monsieur Habert had effected