Your regard for the Bishop of Geneva and for our little Institute, together with the prudence with which you have always guided our Convent of Moulins, gives me hope that you will find a means of adjusting the opposing claims of the Bishop of Nevers and Madame du Tertre. The pregnant arguments you put forward bear, I acknowledge, great weight, but so do those of his Lordship of Nevers. I see much to consider on both sides. Yet I tell you frankly, and it seems to me that I am not unreasonable in my opinion, that, in consideration of Madame du Tertre's resolve to live with us, what she has so freely given ought to be left with the house of Nevers: otherwise she would have to make a virtue of necessity, and this we should be sorry to oblige her to do. But I am chiefly influenced by the fact that the authorities of Nevers only gave permission for the establishment of the Convent because Madame du Tertre accompanied her petition by a promise of ten thousand crowns, which promise was followed by the actual purchase in her name of a property, and the payment of a third of the foundation money; and on the strength of this the Sisters were received. Possession was afterwards taken of the house. The Sisters were installed by the Bishop, enclosure established, and the Blessed Sacrament reserved. Since that day the Divine Office[A] has been continuously recited. Thus, the foundation is, as you see, completely established. How, then, can Madame du Tertre, having undertaken the financial establishment of this house, now draw back without upsetting the whole affair? For as his Lordship of Nevers has upon two occasions plainly told me, the spiritual foundation cannot exist without the temporal. Do you not see, Sir, that to do what this young lady wishes would mean ruining one of our houses to ensure abundance to the other house.