object of his aversion. In his eyes the misfortune of a rickety,
sickly constitution was a flagrant offence to his self-love as a
father. If he execrated handsome men, he also detested weakly ones, in
whom mental capacity took the place of physical strength. To please
him a man should be ugly in face, tall, robust, and ignorant. Etienne,
whose debility would bow him, as it were, to the sedentary occupations
of knowledge, was certain to find in his father a natural enemy. His
struggle with that colossus began therefore from his cradle, and his
sole support against that cruel antagonist was the heart of his mother
whose love increased, by a tender law of nature, as perils threatened
him.

Buried in solitude after the abrupt departure of the count, Jeanne de
Saint-Savin owed to her child the only semblance of happiness that
consoled her life. She loved him as women love the child of an illicit
love; obliged to suckle him, the duty never wearied her. She would not
let her women care for the child. She dressed and undressed him,
finding fresh pleasures in every little care that he required.
Happiness glowed upon her face as she obeyed the needs of the little
being. As Etienne had come into the world prematurely, no clothes were
ready for him, and those that were needed she made herself,--with what
perfection, you know, ye mothers, who have worked in silence for a
treasured child. The days had never hours long enough for these
manifold occupations and the minute precautions of the nursing mother;
those days fled by, laden with her secret content.

The counsel of the bonesetter still continued in the countess's mind.
She feared for her child, and would gladly not have slept in order to
be sure that no one approached him during her sleep; and she kept his
cradle beside her bed. In the absence of the count she ventured to