I am not rich, and without money I cannot leave
her amongst strangers, otherwise I would have found some other
means of providing for her; at the same time, I do not send
her to you absolutely penniless--she will take to you the sum
of three thousand francs, which will provide her board for the
next two or three years, at any rate; I do not cast her on
your charity. I have two requests to make, and if your
religion teaches you to have any regard for the wishes of a
dying man, I trust you will hold them sacred as such. In the
first place, I demand of you that you should not bring her up
to be a nun; she has not, and never will have, the slightest
vocation--is not that the right word?--for such a life. My wish
is that she should be educated for the stage, but I do not
absolutely desire it; circumstances must in some measure
decide, and something must be left to your discretion, but a
nun she shall not be. In the second place, respect my memory,
so far as my little Madeleine is concerned. Keep your powers
of abusing me, if they be not already exhausted, for the
benefit of others; she has never been separated from me since
she was an infant, and the little fool has actually learnt to
love me, and to believe in me.
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