C. — On the whole Chapter VIII

The priest told her that she must mistrust her imagination. He said that he was afraid it might become a bon-fire. Then she warned him that she thought she had a pronounced taste for coquetry, and he said that that was woman's weak point, but that one mustn't hâve too much of it. He thought, besides, that going into society would teach her many things. Perrine was to place her in the hands of her uncle. When the priest saw her go off, he was completely upset. Her uncle was a man well-bred and well-born. He was subject to fréquent attacks of goût although he was barely sixty years of âge, and his disposition was somewhat mocking though jocular.