“Why, César, don’t you know your friend?” I said very gently. He growled in reply and in a louder voice I said: “Fie, César, bad César, you ought to be ashamed! Fancy barking at your friend!” He now began to howl and I was seized with terror. I pulled the ladder up again and sat down at the top. César lay down at the bottom of the gymnasium, his tail straight out, his ears pricked up, his coat bristling, growling in a sullen way. I appealed to the Holy Virgin to help me. I prayed fervently, vowed to say three _Aves_, three _Credos_, and three _Paters_ as well every day. When I was a little calmer I called out in a subdued voice: “César! my dear César, my beautiful César! You know I am the _Angel Raphael_!” Ah, much César cared for him! He considered my presence, quite alone, at so late an hour, in the garden and on the gymnasium, quite incomprehensible. Why was I not in the refectory? Poor César, he went on growling, and I was getting very hungry and began to think things were most unjust. It was true that I had been to blame for taking the soldier’s cap, but after all he had begun it all. Why had he thrown his cap over the wall? My imagination now came to my aid, and in the end I began to look upon myself as a martyr. I had been left to the dog, and he would eat me. I was terrified at the dead people behind me, and everyone knew I was very nervous. My chest, too, was delicate, and there I was exposed to the biting cold with no protection whatever. I began to think about Mother Ste. Sophie, who evidently no longer cared for me, as she was deserting me so cruelly. I lay with my face downward on the plank, and gave myself up to the wildest despair, calling my mother, my father, and Mother Ste. Sophie, sobbing, wishing I could die there and then; between my sobs I suddenly heard my name pronounced by a gentle voice. I got up, and peering through the gloom, caught a glimpse of my beloved Mother Ste. Sophie. She was there, the dear saint, and had never left her rebellious child. Concealed behind the statue of St. Augustine, she had been praying while awaiting the end of this crisis, which in her simplicity she had believed might prove fatal to my reason and perhaps to my salvation. She had sent everyone away and remained there alone and she, too, had not dined. I came down and threw myself repentant and wretched into her motherly arms. She did not say a word to me about the horrible incident, but took me quickly back to the convent. I was all damp, with the icy evening dew, my cheeks were feverish, and my hands and feet frozen. I had an attack of pleurisy after this and was twenty-three days between life and death. Mother Ste. Sophie never left me an instant. The sweet Mother blamed herself for my illness, declaring as she beat her breast that she had left me outside too long. “It’s my fault! It’s my fault!” she kept exclaiming.