During this year he had made some advance in learning to reason, in reflecting before he spoke, and in listening patiently to those who knew more than himself, so he found his old companions rather shallow and trifling. On the occasion of a holiday he made a remark to this effect to his father, with a certain mixture of vanity and regret. M. de Gandelau guessed his mood of mind, and did not let slip this occasion of correcting the reprehensible side of his thoughts.
“It is possible,” said he, “that your companions have not had the good fortune you have enjoyed of finding some one to take the trouble to set them to active work, and teach them something of the practical side of life. But it would be foolish in you, and decidedly hurtful to your mind and character, to despise those who are less informed than yourself in regard to a single branch of knowledge. Who knows whether in other matters they have not acquired a superiority you do not appreciate? It should not be our object in the world (and the Lyceum is a little world not unlike the great one), to shut ourselves up in our own knowledge and thus flatter our vanity, but to discover that of others and endeavour to profit by it. It should not be our object to shine by our knowledge, or fancied knowledge, and so occasion envy on the part of the foolish, and a smile on that of people of sense, but to elicit the knowledge possessed by others. This course of conduct secures us a double advantage: we avoid making enemies, and we increase our store of knowledge.
“It is not at all surprising that your companions know less than you about the building of a house; but you must allow that your knowledge of the matter is but small; and perhaps on other subjects they have more correct and complete ideas than you have. It would have been ridiculous to conceal from your companions the nature of your occupations during your stay in the country; but why should you make much of it? If any of them who has a particular desire for information should put questions to you about it, and if you see that he is really interested in your answers, satisfy his desire; but in the presence of people who care nothing about the matter, be reserved, or else you will get laughed at. There is a vulgar phrase which exactly expresses this fact. We say: people are fond of “trotting out” those who are vain of their knowledge, that is, they get them to talk, not to satisfy a legitimate curiosity, but to make fun of them. Bear this in mind, for it is true in the Lyceum as well as everywhere else.
“If your mind is really more developed than that of your comrades, there is an easy way of making the fact apparent to all, that is, by acquiring more rapidly than they do the instruction equally offered to all. Get to the top of all your classes, and nobody will laugh at you; but all will observe that this year, which has been a sterile one to so many others, has been really a fruitful one to you.”
Paul took the hint, and when he returned to the Lyceum he left off talking about architecture, and gave his mind to the work before him. Consequently, he proved that his mind had been developed, and on New Year’s Day brought home most satisfactory testimonials of progress.
The nickname his schoolfellows had bestowed on him, however, still stuck to him.
“Ah, well!” he would say to himself, when they called him M. l’Architecte; “I shall make good their words, for I am resolved to become an architect in earnest.”
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE HOUSE-WARMING.
Matters had been proceeding according to arrangement; the painters’ work, begun at the commencement of February, in fine weather, was finished in April, and likewise all the accessories. M. de Gandelau, who had returned to his estate at the end of January, had caused the small park round the house to be planted, and had ordered the most indispensable furniture, wishing to leave his daughter to make choice herself of those articles which would express her own particular taste.
Madame Marie had announced April as the time of her return, and subsequently May. In the correspondence between her mother and herself nothing had been said about the house since the war. Madame Marie had probably not regarded as serious what had been written to her respecting it; and the disastrous events of the years 1870 and 1871 seemed to have made all parties forget the project.