"
These were strange sentiments in the mouth of a man who was ever
the mannered courtier, and as I sat there alone, while he was gone
elsewhere for some minutes, many such things he had said came back
to me, suggested, no doubt, by this new, inexplicable attitude
towards myself. I could trace some of his sentiments, perhaps
vaguely, to the fact that--as I had come to know through the
Seigneur Duvarney--his mother was of peasant blood, the beautiful
daughter of a farmer of Poictiers, who had died soon after giving
birth to Doltaire. His peculiar nature had shown itself in his
refusal to accept a title. It was his whim to be the plain
"Monsieur"; behind which was, perhaps, some native arrogancy which
made him prefer that to being a noble whose origin, well known,
must ever interfere with his ambitions. Then, too, maybe, the
peasant in him--never in his face or form, which were patrician
altogether--spoke for more truth and manliness than he was capable
of, and so he chose to be the cynical, irresponsible courtier, while
many of his instincts had urged him to the peasant's integrity. He
had undisturbed, however, one instinct of the peasant--a directness,
which was evident chiefly in the clearness of his thoughts.
As these things hurried through my mind, my body sunk in a kind
of restfulness before the great fire, Doltaire came back.
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