any of people who might have considered themselves her superiors.
She ridiculed keenly the pride of fools, the vanity of _parvenus_, and,
feeling herself of the people to her very finger-ends, she thought
herself more noble than all the patricians and aristocrats of the earth.
She was wont to say that those of her race had redder blood and larger
veins than others,--which I incline to believe; for, if moral and
physical energy constitute in reality the excellence of races, we cannot
deny that this energy is compelled to diminish in those who lose the
habit of labor and the courage of endurance. This aphorism is certainly
not without exception, and we may add that excess of labor and of
endurance enervates the organization as much as the excess of luxury and
idleness. But it is certain, in general, that life rises from the bottom
of society, and loses itself in measure as it rises to the top, like the
sap in plants.

"My mother was not one of those bold _intrigantes_ whose secret passion
is to struggle against the prejudices of their time, and who think to
make themselves greater by clinging, at the risk of a thousand affronts,
to the false greatness of the world. She was far too proud to expose
herself even to coldness. Her attitude was so reserved that she passed
for a timid person; but if one attempted to encourage her by airs of
protection, she became more than reserved, she showed herself cold and
taciturn. With people who inspired her with respect, she was amiable and
charming; but her real disposition was gay, petulant, active, and, above
all, opposed to constraint. Great dinners, long _soirees_, commonplace
visits, balls themselves, were odious to her. She was the woman of the
fireside or of the rapid and frolicking walk; but in her interior, as in
her goings abroad, intimacy, confidence, relations of entire sincerity,
absolute freedom in her habits and the employment of her time, were
indispensable to her. She, therefore, always lived in a retired manner,
more anxious to avoid unpleasant acquaintances than eager to make
advantageous ones. Such, too, was the foundation of my father's
character, and in this respect never was couple better assorted. They
were never happy out of their little household. And they have bequeathed
me this secret _sauvagerie_, which has always rendered the [fashionable]
world insupportable to me, and home indispensable."

In referring back to these volumes, we are led into continual loit