She did not mope nor pine, that was not her way;
but she became possessed with a spirit of restless petulance,
which at first, indeed, was only another phase of unhappiness,
but which, not being recognized as such, presently developed
into a most decided wilfulness. She turned impatiently from
the nun's well-meant kindness and efforts to console her,
which somehow were not what she wanted--not that, but something
so different, poor child!--she was cross, peevish, fractious
without intending it, scarcely knowing why; the nuns set her
down as a perverse unamiable child: and so it happened, that
she had not been many weeks in the convent before she came to
be regarded with general disfavour and indifference instead of
with the kindly feeling that had at first been shown to the
forlorn little stranger.
Graham had indeed wasted some pity on her, in imagining her
under the immediate control of her aunt. The Superior had far
too many things to think about for her to trouble herself with
any direct superintendence of her little niece; Madelon hardly
ever saw her, and in fact, of the convent life in general she
knew but little.
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