We weave within us poetic
fancies quite equal to those of the woman; and the day when either
party guesses them they take wings to themselves and fly away. Are not
such things like the flower of wild fruits, bitter-sweet, grown in the
heart of a forest, the joy of the scant sun-rays, the joy, as Canalis
says in the "Maiden's Song," of the plant itself whose eyes unclosing
see its own image within its breast?
Such emotions, now taking place in La Briere, tend to show that, like
other poor fellows for whom life begins in toil and care, he had never
yet been loved. Arriving at Havre overnight, he had gone to bed at
once, like a true coquette, to obliterate all traces of fatigue; and
now, after taking his bath, he had put himself into a costume
carefully adapted to show him off to the best advantage. This is,
perhaps, the right moment to exhibit a full-length portrait of him, if
only to justify the last letter that Modeste was still to write to
him.
Born of a good family in Toulouse, and allied by marriage to the
minister who first took him under his protection, Ernest had that air
of good-breeding which comes of an education begun in the cradle; and
the habit of managing business affairs gave him a certain sedateness
which was not pedantic,--though pedantry is the natural outgrowth of
premature gravity.
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