Page 859 - les-miserables

CHAPTER X

ORIGIN OF THE

PERPETUAL ADORATION

However, this almost sepulchral parlor, of which we
have sought to convey an idea, is a purely local trait which
is not reproduced with the same severity in other convents.
At the convent of the Rue du Temple, in particular, which
belonged, in truth, to another order, the black shutters were
replaced by brown curtains, and the parlor itself was a salon
with a polished wood floor, whose windows were draped in
white muslin curtains and whose walls admitted all sorts of
frames, a portrait of a Benedictine nun with unveiled face,
painted bouquets, and even the head of a Turk.
It is in that garden of the Temple convent, that stood that
famous chestnut-tree which was renowned as the finest and
the largest in France, and which bore the reputation among
the good people of the eighteenth century of being the fa-
ther of all the chestnut trees of the realm.
As we have said, this convent of the Temple was occupied
by Benedictines of the Perpetual Adoration, Benedictines
quite different from those who depended on Citeaux. This

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