The official’s daughter was unprepared for her assigned epistolary role as confidante

Evidence

Should we have any doubt as to whether Suze was prepared for this new role, her schoolgirl letter a few months later from boarding school evinces that she was not, as she implores him to permit her to go with her classmates to the colonial exposition in Paris: You will have certainly received [Grand] Maman’s letter where she asked you to allow me to go to Paris, but I thought it kinder of me if I asked you myself. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1491