Mme. Fressard’s adopted daughter, Mlle. Caroline—whom I chanced to meet a long time after, married to the celebrated artist, Yvon—would then appear on the scene, angry and implacable, and would give us all kinds of punishments for the following day. As for me, I used to get locked up for three days. That was followed by my being detained on the first day we were allowed out. And, in addition, I would receive five strokes with a ruler on my fingers. Ah! those ruler blows of Mlle. Caroline’s! I reproached her about them when I met her again twenty-five years later. She used to make us put all our fingers round the thumb and hold our hands out straight near to her and then, bang came her wide, ebony ruler. She used to give us a cruelly hard, dry blow which made the tears spurt to our eyes. I took a dislike to Mlle. Caroline. She was beautiful, but with the kind of beauty I did not care for. She had a very white complexion and very black hair which she wore in waved bandeaux. When I saw her a long time afterwards, one of my relatives brought her to my house and said: “I am sure you will not recognize this lady and yet you know her very well.” I was leaning against the large mantelpiece in the hall and I saw this tall woman, still beautiful, but rather provincial-looking, coming through the first drawing-room. As she descended the three steps into the hall, the light fell on her protruding forehead, framed on each side with the hard, waved bandeaux. “Mlle. Caroline!” I exclaimed, and with a furtive, childish movement, I hid my two hands behind my back. I never saw her again, for the grudge I had owed her from my childhood must have been apparent under my politeness as hostess. As I said before, I was not unhappy at Mme. Fressard’s, and it seemed quite natural to me that I should stay there until I was quite grown up. My uncle, Felix Faure, who at present has entered the Carthusian monastery, had stipulated that his wife, my mother’s sister, should often take me out. He had a very fine country place at Neuilly with a stream running through the grounds, and I used to fish there for hours together, with my two cousins, a boy and girl. These two years of my life passed peacefully, without any other events than my terrible fits of temper, which upset the whole _pension_ and always left me in the sick-room for two or three days. These outbursts of temper were like attacks of madness. One day Aunt Rosine arrived suddenly, to take me away altogether. My father had written giving orders as to where I was to be placed, and these orders were imperative. My mother was traveling, so she had sent word to my aunt, who had hurried off at once, between two dances, to carry out the instructions she had received.