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For Greater Things; the story of Saint Stanislaus Kostka by William Terence Kane
page 35 of 80 (43%)
his companions, his unaffected piety, his long hours of prayer, were
things he could not understand. They seemed a sort of standing
rebuke to him, and they constantly nettled him. Of course he sought
reasons to justify himself, as we all do when we are in the wrong.
When they were alone, he and Bilinski fell to scolding Stanislaus.

"You shame us!" Paul would cry. "You do not act like a nobleman,
but like some boorish peasant."

Then Stanislaus would be troubled. He knew he was in the right. He
simply could not stand the free ways and freer speech of Paul and
his companions. But how could he justify himself? How could he
defend his own position without at least seeming to attack his
brother's? And that last he would never do. S6metimes he tried to
smooth matters over by saying:

"We take different ways, Paul. I do not condemn yours. Why not let
me alone in mine?"

But oftenest he could only smile and say nothing. And whether he
answered or kept silence, Paul was sure to grow more irritated. Then
Bilinski tried to exert his authority.

"Your father gave you into my charge," he would say. "I order you to
act like the rest of us and not make yourself odd and shame us by
your conduct."

But Stanislaus knew well enough what were the limits of Bilinski's
authority and he was not at all the sort of boy to be easily bullied
by a mere assumption of authority that did not exist.
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