"Think again, my child; it cannot be quite the reverse; for they made you raise your eyes from your work more than twenty times, and yet I know that your work interested you."
"Nevertheless, I assure you, mamma, it was not pleasure that I felt."
"It was at least a great interest; and did not this interest arise from the satisfaction you experienced at seeing them more unreasonable than yourself?"
"Oh, mamma!"
"Come, my dear Eudoxia, it is in the examination of our evil emotions that courage is required, the good ones are easily discovered. Ask your conscience what it thinks of the matter."
"Mamma," said Eudoxia, somewhat confused, "I assure you that I did not at first think it was that."
"I believe you, my child; it is a feeling which steals upon us unperceived. Many persons experience it as well as you, and imagine that the bad actions of others increase the merit of their own. But tell me, my dear Eudoxia, would there not be still greater pleasure in being superior to such persons, than in merely being superior to your companions in industry and attention?"
Eudoxia assented to this, and promised to attend to it. She was always happy when any duty was pointed out to her, so great was the pleasure she felt in endeavouring to accomplish it. Having gone down to fetch something from an apartment adjoining the drawing-room, the door of which was open, she heard Madame de Croissy observe to Madame de Rivry,—
"I have always said that Mademoiselle Eudoxia would never be anything but a little pedant."