"Between him and me, between him and others, the distance is so great!"
"But what, then, was his rank?"
"I do not know that he had any rank, madame."
"Yet you allude to the distance which exists between him and others."
"Oh, madame, what places him above all the rest of the world is the elevation of his character, his inexhaustible generosity towards those who suffer, the enthusiasm which he inspires in every one. The wicked, even, cannot hear his name without trembling, and respect as much as they dread him! But forgive me, madame, for still speaking of him. I ought to be silent, for I seek to give you an adequate idea of him who ought to be adored in silence. I might as well try to express by words the goodness of Heaven!"
"This comparison—"
"Is, perhaps, sacrilegious, madame; but will it offend the good God to compare to him one who has given me the consciousness of good and evil, one who has snatched me from the abyss, one, in fact, to whom I owe a new existence?"
"I do not blame you, my child; I can understand all your noble exaggerations. But how was it that you abandoned this farm, where you must have been so happy?"
"Alas, not voluntarily, madame!"
"Who, then, forced you away?"