After which he hastily joined the child and old servant, and entered the house in company with them.
"Where is he going?" asked the doctor.
"To give his lesson. Didn't you see his scholar?"
"What scholar?"
"That child is the son of a day labourer who lives too far from Pont Brillant to be able to send his child to the village school, so Frederick is teaching the little fellow to read. He gives him two lessons a day, and I assure you that I am as well pleased with the teacher as with the pupil, doctor, for Frederick displays in his teaching a zeal, patience, and sweetness of disposition that delights me."
"It is certainly a very nice thing for him to do."
"We are obliged to do good in these small ways, you see, doctor," said Madame Bastien, with a rather sad smile. "You know with what rigid parsimony my son and I are treated in regard to money matters. Still, I should not complain. Thanks to this parsimony, Frederick devises all sorts of expedients. Some of them are, I assure you, very touching, and if I were not afraid of showing too much pride, I would tell you something that occurred last week."
"Go on, my dear Madame Bastien; surely you are not going to try to play the mock modest mother with me."
"No, I am not, so listen. Last Thursday Frederick and I walked over to Brevan heath—"
"Where they are clearing up some land. I noticed that fact as I passed there this morning."