It is possible that this one had been artificially brought about by my mother who, seeing that for some time past I had lost all interest in life, may have suggested to Gilberte to write to me, just as, when I was little and went first to the seaside, so as to give me some pleasure in bathing, which I detested because it took away my breath, she used secretly to hand to the man who was to "dip" me marvellous boxes made of shells, and branches of coral, which I believed that I myself had discovered lying at the bottom of the sea.