"Who told you 'The Contract' was a good book?"
"I found that out by reading it, in comparison with some infamous ones in the baron's library."
"The baron gets indecent books, always costly, in this hole?"
"He does not spend money on them as they are sent him from Paris by his friend the Marshal Duke of Richelieu."
"Oh! of course he does not let his daughter see such stuff?"
"He leaves them about, but Mademoiselle Andrea does not read them," rejoined the youth, drily.
The mocking traveler was briefly silent. He was interested in this singular character, in whom was blended good and evil, shame and boldness.
"How came you to read bad books?"
"I did not know what they were until read; but I kept on as they taught me what I was unaware of. But 'The Contract' told me what I had guessed, that all men are brothers, society badly arranged, and that instead of being serfs and slaves, individuals are equal."
"Whew!" whistled the gentleman, as they went on. "You seem to be hungry to learn?"