Montreux . aus. It is a letter which illuminates thesituation, not only because of the new facts which itdiscloses, but also because of the light which it inci-dentally sheds upon the character of the writer. He was a good man, a very good man; a manwho always did his duty—and sometimes morethan his duty—in the state of life to which he wascalled. In the matter of settlements he appearsto have behaved most handsomely. He took hiswife from a boarding-school to marry her, andpaid all her bills, which amounted to a figure whichmay well have frightened him when he reflectedthat, for the future, sh
Montreux . aus. It is a letter which illuminates thesituation, not only because of the new facts which itdiscloses, but also because of the light which it inci-dentally sheds upon the character of the writer. He was a good man, a very good man; a manwho always did his duty—and sometimes morethan his duty—in the state of life to which he wascalled. In the matter of settlements he appearsto have behaved most handsomely. He took hiswife from a boarding-school to marry her, andpaid all her bills, which amounted to a figure whichmay well have frightened him when he reflectedthat, for the future, she would have an impliedauthority to pledge his credit. What with theaccounts of the dressmaker, the glover, the boot-maker, and the necessity of replacing a foot-warmerbelonging to the head mistress which Mademoisellede la Tour had broken, the total was no less than3,068 florins. But M. de Warens paid up like alover, and took a receipt, and kept it, like a manof business. THE FOUNTAIN IN VEYTAUX VILLAGE. MADAME DE WARENS 75 So far so good. M. de Warens had establishedan indisputable claim to his wifes gratitude. Butgratitude is not quite the same thing as love; andit is impossible to prove that M. de Warens waslovable. He was just, and stern, and stubbornlyreligious ; his consciousness of his own respectabilityand piety illuminates the whole of his long apology ;but there is nothing in it, from beginning to end,to suggest a reason why a young woman of brightand animated disposition should have preferred himto other men, equally pious and respectable. Sohis wife, whose disposition was certainly brightand animated, in spite of her Pietist training,became bored, and sought distraction. Somewomen, in the circumstances, would have soughtdistraction with lovers, others with religion; Madamede Warens sought it in commercial enterprise. In1725—^when she was twenty-six years of age—shedecided to start the manufacture of silk stockingsin a country in which silk stockings were not
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