My dislike for him grew
stronger and stronger in spite of all the politeness he showed me.
I understood nothing whatever of his dabblings in philosophy, and I
opposed all his opinions with the grossest prejudices and expressions at
my command. What consoled me in a measure for my secret sufferings was
to see that he was no more admitted than myself to Edmee's rooms.
For a week the sole event of note was that Patience took up his abode
in a hut near the chateau. Ever since the Abbe Aubert had found a refuge
from ecclesiastical persecution under the chevalier's roof, he had no
longer been obliged to arrange secret meetings with the hermit. He had,
therefore, strongly urged him to give up his dwelling in the forest
and to come nearer to himself. Patience had needed a great deal of
persuasion. Long years of solitude had so attached him to his Gazeau
Tower that he hesitated to desert it for the society of his friend.
Besides, he declared that the abbe would assuredly be corrupted with
commerce with the great; that soon, unknown to himself, he would come
under the influence of the old ideas, and that his zeal for the sacred
cause would grow cold. It is true that Edmee had won Patience's heart,
and that, in offering him a little cottage belonging to her father
situated in a picturesque ravine near the park gate, she had gone to
work with such grace and delicacy that not even his techy pride could
feel wounded.
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