C. — On the whole of Chapter I

Although the little girl was small, she was not a dwarf . Her aunt was very tall and ugly and was the most disagreeable

2l6 EXERCISES

woman you ever saw. Behind the old house stretched a garden and from time immémorial no one had thought of pruning the trees which grew there. The priest had undertaken to teach the little girl, but idleness was her pet sin and she liked better to tease him and to oppose his ideas than to study. Her aunt was always présent at the lessons and never lost an opportunity of saying something disagreeable, but the priest knew her aunt of old. After the recitation came discussions. The little girl would stand up for her ideas, the priest for his. It was in vain that he reasoned. He would tell her that in the batde of life she would learn that one does not dispute, one submits. But little she cared for life. It was enough for her to hâve a priest to tease.