Mauprat
with the apologies I made you at Gazeau Tower, you must say so. See, there is no one near; and, old as I am, I have still a fist as good as yours. We can exchange a few healthy blows—that is Nature's way. And, though I do not approve of it, I never refuse satisfaction to any one who demands it. There are some men, I know, who would die of mortification if they did not have their revenge: and it has taken me—yes, the man you see before you more than fifty years to forget an insult I once received . . . and even now, whenever I think of it, my hatred of the nobles springs up again, and I hold it a crime to have let my heart forgive some of them."
"I am fully satisfied, Master Patience; and in truth I now feel nothing but affection for you."
"Ah, that comes of my scratching your back. Youth is ever generous. Come, Mauprat, take courage. Follow the abbé's advice; he is a good man. Try to please your cousin; she is a star in the firmament. Find out truth; love the people; hate those who hate them; be ready to sacrifice yourself for them. . . . Yes, one word more—listen. I know what I am saying—become the people's friend."
"Is the people, then, better than the nobility, Patience? Come now, honestly, since you are a wise man, tell me the truth."
"Ay, we are worth more than the nobles, because they trample us under foot, and we let them. But we shall not always bear this, perhaps. No; you will have to know it sooner or later, and I may as well tell you now. You see yonder stars? They will never change. Ten thousand years hence they will be in the same place and be giving forth as much light as to-day; but within the
150
