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"We’re having this fight again? I enty years old when I lost inity to him How old were you when you had sex the first time?"

"I’ve repented And clearly you haven’t"

"I’, Mother I know you don’t want to accept that your daughter has sexual thoughts and feelings, but I do"

"I know you do We all do But we don’t go around writing about them, do we?"

"What?"

"Did you think I wouldn’t catch you?"

"What exactly did you catch ?" Elle asked, more confused now than ever

Her mother reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a sheaf of bent and folded papers

"You left this here in the laundry roo I’m the one who found it Mother Prioress would have you out on your ass in five seconds if soht this smut to her"

Elle saw it now Her story Her Daphne and Apollo story

She laughed

"You think this is funny?" her mother demanded

"You found my book," Elle said "That’s why you’re ," she said hastily "I didn’t know you’d found it"

"I did find it, and I read it You can’t have pornography in a convent Have you lost your raphy It’s a rorocery stores Last tirocery store I didn’t find any porn I looked"

"This is what you think romance is? No wonder you fell in love with that man"

"Yeah, no wonder" Elle tried to compose her face into a mask of sincere contrition Or at least a passable fake "I’ood to read in this place It’s all theology and politics, and I got bored It’s a novel based on a y story"

"It has explicit sex in it"

"People do have sex sometimes So I hear Every now and then When they’re not in a convent"

"You don’t have to write about it"

"I don’t have to But I want to"

"Are you trying to get thrown out of here?"

"Well, no"

"Then if I were you, I’d burn this trash Burn it today Get rid of it before anyone else finds it and reads it And stop wasting your talent on this garbage Use it to write solorify Hilorify yourself"