In the first
place, if formed part of the furniture of the room, and had
always been there, so far as he knew--which, to the nun, whose
life was founded on a series of unquestioned precedents,
allowing of nothing arbitrary but the will of the Superior,
appeared an unanswerable reason why it should always remain;
and, in the next place, with the lack of sympathy that one
sometimes remarks in unimaginative minds, she did not in the
least understand the terror with which it inspired the child,
but assured her, in her good-humoured way, that that was all
nonsense, and the she would get over it in time. So the skull
remained, and Madelon was miserable, till one night, in a
moment of desperation, she jumped out of bed, seized it with
both hands, and flung it with all her might through the window
into the garden below. She was frightened when she heard the
crash of falling glass, for in her excitement she had never
stopped to open the window, but greatly relieved,
notwithstanding, to think that her enemy was gone, and slept
more soundly that night than she had done for a long time
previously.
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