(Pavitra shows Mother a photograph of the house in which

She lived in Paris, rue du Val de Grāce)

Well, well! The house on Val de Grāce! It looks inhabited, the windows have curtains in them. I lived there - a small house, really very small, with a bedroom upstairs.

Here, this is the kitchen; here is the living room, this is the studio. And then behind the kitchen there was a small room that I used as the dining room, and it opened onto a courtyard. Between the dining room and the kitchen there was a bathroom and a small hallway. The kitchen is here; you went up three steps and then there was this small hallway with the stairs leading up to the bedroom. Next to the bedroom was a bathroom about as big as a thimble.

It is part of a huge house. There's a seven-story apartment building on each side, and the street is here.

It wasn't very big. The studio was rather large - a beautiful room ... That's where I received Madame David-Neel - we saw each other nearly every evening.

There was a considerable library in the studio; one whole end was given over to the library - more than two thousand books belonging to my brother. There were even the complete works of several classical writers. And I had my entire collection of the Revue Cosmique, and my post card collection (it was down below) - mainly post cards of Algeria, Tlemcen, nearly 200 of them. But there were five years of the Revue Cosmique. And written in such a French! How funny it was!

Theon's wife dictated it in English while she was in trance. Another English lady who was there claimed to know French like a Frenchman. 'Myself, I never use a dictionary,' she would say, 'I don't need a dictionary.' But then she would turn out such translations! She made all the classic mistakes of English words that mustn't be translated like that. Then it was sent to me in Paris for correcting. It was literally impossible.

She was a small woman, fat, almost flabby - she gave you the feeling that if you leaned against her, it would melt! Once, I remember ... I was there in Tlemcen with Andre's father, who had come to join us - a painter, an artist. Theon was wearing a dark purple robe. Theon said to him, 'This robe is purple.' 'No, it's not purple,' the other answered, 'it's violet.' Theon went rigid: 'When I say purple, it's purple!' And they started arguing over this foolishness. Suddenly there flashed from my head, 'No, this is too ridiculous!' - I didn't say a word, but it went out from my head (I even saw the flash), and then Madame Theon got up and came over to me, stood behind me (neither of us uttered a word - the other two were staring at each other like two angry cocks), then she laid my head against her breast - absolutely the feeling of sinking into eiderdown!

And never in my life, never, had I felt such peace - it was absolutely luminous and soft ... a peace, such a soft, tender, luminous peace. After a moment, she bent down and whispered in my ear, 'One must never question one's master!' It wasn't I who was questioning!

She was a wonderful woman, wonderful. But as for him ... well ...

It's funny ... I don't know why, but a short while ago this house on Val de Grāce suddenly came to me ... (to Pavitra) When did this photograph come?

Yesterday.

page 441-42 , Mother's Agenda , volume 1 , 22nd Oct. 1960