The young enthusiast ardently
admired the man whose life belonged to others, and in whom the habit
of studying physical suffering had destroyed the manifestations of
egoism. That evening, when Gobenheim, the Latournelles, and Butscha,
Canalis, Ernest, and the Duc d'Herouville were gathered in the salon,
they all congratulated the Mignon family on the hopes which Desplein
encouraged. The conversation, in which the Modeste of her letters was
once more in the ascendant, turned naturally on the man whose genius,
unfortunately for his fame, was appreciable only by the faculty and
men of science. Gobenheim contributed a phrase which is the sacred
chrism of genius as interpreted in these days by public economists and
bankers,--
"He makes a mint of money."
"They say he is very grasping," added Canalis.
The praises which Modeste showered on Desplein had annoyed the poet.
Vanity acts like a woman,--they both think they are defrauded when
love or praise is bestowed on others. Voltaire was jealous of the wit
of a roue whom Paris admired for two days; and even a duchess takes
offence at a look bestowed upon her maid.
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