earlier days,--devoting herself chiefly to the care and education of her
son, Maurice, in which latter task she secured the services of a young
abbé, who afterwards prudently became the _Citizen_ Deschartres, and who
continued in the service of the family during the rest of a tolerably
long life. This personage plays too important a part in the memoirs to
be passed over without special notice. He continued to be the faithful
teacher and companion of Maurice, until the exigencies of military life
removed the latter from his control. He was also the man of business of
Madame Dupin, and, at a later day, the preceptor of George herself, who,
with childish petulance, bestowed on him the sobriquet of _grand homme_,
in consequence, she tells us, of his _omnicompétence_ and his air of
importance. "My grandmother," she says, "had no presentiment, that, in
confiding to him the education of her son, she was securing the tyrant,
the saviour, and the friend of her whole remaining life." We would
gladly give here in full George's portrait of her tutor; but if we
should stop to sketch all the admirable photography of this work, our
review would become a volume. We can only borrow a trait or two, and
pass on to the consideration of other matters.

"He had been good-looking; but I am sure that no one, even in his best
days, could have looked at him without laughing, so clearly was the word
_pedant_ written in all the lines of his face and in every movement of
his person. To be complete, he should have been ignorant, _gourmand_,
and cowardly. But, far from this, he was very learned, temperate, and
madly courageous. He had all the great qualities of the soul, joined
to an insufferable disposition, and a self-satisfaction which amounted
almost to delirium. But what devotion, what zeal, what a tender and
generous soul!"

In the intervals of his necessary occupations he studied medicine and