Page 62 - les-miserables

Good Madame, recommend us to the prayers of your
sainted relative, Monsieur the Cardinal. As for your dear
Sylvanie, she has done well in not wasting the few moments
which she passes with you in writing to me. She is well,
works as you would wish, and loves me.
That is all that I desire. The souvenir which she sent
through you reached me safely, and it makes me very
happy. My health is not so very bad, and yet I grow thin-
ner every day. Farewell; my paper is at an end, and
this forces me to leave you. A thousand good wishes.
BAPTISTINE.
P.S. Your grand nephew is charming. Do you know that
he will soon be five years old? Yesterday he saw some one
riding by on horseback who had on knee-caps, and he said,
‘What has he got on his knees?’ He is a charming child! His
little brother is dragging an old broom about the room, like
a carriage, and saying, ‘Hu!’
As will be perceived from this letter, these two women
understood how to mould themselves to the Bishop’s ways
with that special feminine genius which comprehends the
man better than he comprehends himself. The Bishop of
D——, in spite of the gentle and candid air which never de-
serted him, sometimes did things that were grand, bold, and
magnificent, without seeming to have even a suspicion of
the fact. They trembled, but they let him alone. Sometimes
Madame Magloire essayed a remonstrance in advance, but
never at the time, nor afterwards. They never interfered
with him by so much as a word or sign, in any action once
entered upon. At certain moments, without his having oc-

62 Les Miserables