"Ah, my friend, have not all young people ridiculous passions? My son is enamoured of virtue!… The customs of the word, the need of pleasure, and the facilities of satisfying himself will bring him insensibly to a moderate state of feeling, and at thirty he will be just like any other man; he will enjoy life, and shut his eyes to many things which shock him to-day."
PIGAULT-LEBRUN (Le Blanc et le Noir).
At that moment Veronica came in to serve coffee.
In honour of her master's guest, she had put on her black dress of Associate and her silver medal; and on her head she wore coquettishly an embroidered cap, trimmed with tulle of dazzling whiteness.
The old Curé threw himself into his arm-chair with his head back, in order to contemplate her with admiration. She went and came, clearing the table, and he followed her movements with the eye of a connoisseur, estimating the value of an article.
He smiled sanctimoniously, and the smile and attention, which the bashful
Veronica noticed, made her blush and cast her eyes modestly down.
-Eh! Eh! he seemed to say, here is a girl who is still fit to adorn a bed.
When the servant had left the room, he rose, drew the screen between the table and the door, and then came and sat down again facing Marcel.
—I don't understand, he said, why a man should go and search away from home, amid perils and obstacles, for a pleasure which he can obtain comfortably, quietly, with no fear or disquietude, at his own fire-side.
—To what are you pleased to allude?