Chapter 9
Volume 2: 2: Cosette · Book 6: 6: Petit Picpus I
9: A Century Under a Guimp
Chapter 9Visible text2 paragraphs
SINCE we are dealing with the details of what was formerly the convent of the Petit Picpus, and have dared to open a window upon that secluded asylum, the reader will pardon us another little digression, foreign to the object of this book, but characteristic and useful, as it teaches us that the cloister itself has its original characters.
There was in the Little Convent a centenarian who came from the Abbey of Fontevrault. Before the revolution she had even been in society. She talked much of M. de Miromesnil, keeper of the seals under Louis XVI., and of the lady of a President Duplat whom she had known very well. It was her pleasure and her vanity to bring forward these names on all occasions. She told wonders of the Abbey of Fontevrault, that it was like a city, and that there were streets within the convent.