'Had I had fewer I might have been more useful in my generation,' he said, with a certain sincerity of regret.
'You would have been much less interesting,' she thought to herself, as she said aloud, 'There are the horses coming up to the steps: will you ride with me? And do not be ungrateful for your good gifts. Talent is a Schlüsselblume that opens to all hidden treasures.'
'Why are you not in the Chamber?' she had said a little before to him. 'You are eloquent; you have an ancestry that binds you to do your best for France.'
'I have no convictions,' he had said, with a flush on his face. 'It is a sad thing to confess.'
'It is; but if you have nothing better to substitute for them you might be content to abide by those of your fathers.'
He had been silent.
'Besides,' she had added, 'patriotism is not an opinion, it is an instinct.'
'With good men. I am not one of them.'
'Go into public life,' she had repeated. 'Convictions will come to you in an active career, as the muscles develop in the gymnasium.'
'I am indolent,' he had demurred, 'and I have desultory habits.'