At breakfast next morning, the friends agreed to spend the evening of
the following day at the Chalet and initiate themselves into the
delights of provincial whist. To get rid of the day they ordered their
horses, purchased by Germain at a large price, and started on a voyage
of discovery round the country, which was quite as unknown to them as
China; for the most foreign thing to Frenchmen in France is France
itself.
By dint of reflecting on his position as an unfortunate and despised
lover, Ernest went through something of the same process as Modeste's
first letter had forced upon him. Though sorrow is said to develop
virtue, it only develops it in virtuous persons; that cleaning-out of
the conscience takes place only in persons who are by nature clean. La
Briere vowed to endure his sufferings in Spartan silence, to act
worthily, and give way to no baseness; while Canalis, fascinated by
the enormous "dot," was telling himself to take every means of
captivating the heiress. Selfishness and devotion, the key-notes of
the two characters, therefore took, by the action of a moral law which
is often very odd in its effects, certain measures that were contrary
to their respective natures.
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