uld not see my face, hidden as it was in Edmee's breast. She pushed
me towards him; and the old man clasped me in his feeble arms with a
burst of generous affection that gave him back for a moment the vigour
of youth.

I leave you to imagine the questions with which I was overwhelmed, and
the attentions that were lavished on me. Edmee was a veritable mother
to me. Her unaffected kindness and confidence savoured so much of heaven
that throughout the day I could not think of her otherwise than if I had
really been her son.

I was very much touched at the pleasure they took in preparing a big
surprise for the abbe; I saw in this a sure proof of the delight he
would feel at my return. They made me hide under Edmee's frame, and
covered me with the large green cloth that was generally thrown over her
work. The abbe sat down quite close to me, and I gave a shout and seized
him by the legs. This was a little practical joke that I used to play
on him in the old days. When, throwing aside the frame, and sending the
balls of wool rolling over the floor, I came out from my hiding-place,
the expression of terror and delight on his face was most quaint.

But I will spare you all these family scenes to which my memory goes
back too readily.

XVII

An immense change had taken place in me during the course of six years.
I had become a man very much like other men; my instincts had managed to
bring themselves into harmony with my affections, my intuitions with my
reason. This social education had been carried on quite naturally; all
I had to do was to accept the lessons of experience and the counsels of
friendship. I was far from being a learned man; but I had developed a
power of acquiring solid learning very rapidly. My notions of things in
general were as clear as could be obtained at that time. Since then I
know that real progress has been made in human knowledge; I have watched
it from afar and have never thought of denying it. And as I notice that
not all men of my age show themselves as reasonable, it pleases me to
think that I was put on a fairly right road early in life, since I have
never stopped in the blind alley of errors and prejudices.

The progress I had made intellectually seemed to satisfy Edmee.

"I am not astonished at it," she said. "I could see it in your letters;
but I rejoice at it with a mother's pride."

My good uncle was no longer strong enough to engage in the old stormy
discussions; and I reall