Such proofs of concentration of feeling, often assumed by other women, were so genuine in Ursula that she saw in dreams the coming of Savinien's letters, and never failed to announce them, relating the dream as a forerunner.
"Now," she said to the doctor the fourth time that this happened, "I am easy; wherever Savinien may be, if he is wounded I shall know it instantly." The old doctor thought over this remark so anxiously that the abbe and Monsieur Bongrand were troubled by the sorrowful expression of his face.
"What pains you ?" they said, when Ursula had left them.
"Will she live ?" replied the doctor.

"Can so tender and delicate a flower endure the trials of the heart ?" Nevertheless, the "little dreamer," as the abbe called her, was working hard.

She understood the importance of a fine education to a woman of the world, and all the time she did not give to her singing and to the study of harmony and composition she spent in reading the books chosen for her by the abbe from her godfather's rich library.

And yet while leading this busy life she suffered, though without complaint.

Sometimes she would sit for hours looking at Savinien's window.