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Emma had read great romances when she was younger, and had dreamed that love would one day take hold of her with great passion in a similar way.
When she was thirteen, her father took her to town to place her in the convent school. Far from being bored at first, she took pleasure in the society of the good nuns, who,to amuse her, took her to the chapel . She played very little during recreation hours, did her studies well, and it was she who always answered the teacher's difficult questions.Living thus, without ever leaving the warm atmosphere of the classrooms, she was softly lulled by the mystic stories of Jesus. Emma, at fifteen years of age, made her hands dirty with books from old lending libraries.
When her mother died, she cried much the first few days. She had a funeral picture made with the hair of her dead mother, and,in a letter sent to the Bertaux, full of sad reflections on life, she asked to be buried later on in the same grave . Her father thought she must be ill, and came to see her. The good nuns, who had been so sure of her vocation , perceived with great astonishment that Mademoiselle Emma seemed to be slipping from them. She had loved the church for the sake of the stories and flowers, and music for the words of the songs, and literature for its passion.Soon, she rebelled against the mysteries of faith, as she grew irritated by discipline . When her father took her from school, no one was sorry to see her go.
Emma, at home once more, first took pleasure in looking after the servants, then grew disgusted with the country and missed her convent. When Charles came to the Bertaux for the first time, she thought herself quite disillusioned, with nothing more to learn, and nothing more to feel. But the uneasiness of her new position, or perhaps the disturbance caused by the presence of this man, had sufficed to make her believe that she at last felt that passion which, till then, she had only read in books. Now, she could not think that the calm in which she lived was the happiness she had dreamed of.
romance /rəˈmæns/ n. 浪漫文学，浪漫作品
chape l /ˈtʃæpəl/ n. 小礼拜堂，礼拜
recreation /ˌrekrɪˈeɪʃən/ n. 消遣，娱乐
grave /ɡreɪv/ n. 坟墓，墓穴
vocation /vəʊˈkeɪʃən/ n. 才能
rebel /ˈrebəl/ vi. 反叛，反抗
discipline /ˈdɪsɪplɪn/ n. 纪律
disgust /dɪsˈɡʌst/ vt. 使厌恶，使反感
suffice /səˈfaɪs/ vt. 足够，满足