I do not wish to make you think ill of your friend; but
Adolphe is one of those men whom adversity will improve. You and our
father have rather spoilt him between you; he is too proud, too apt to
think that everything should bend to his wishes: he has yet to learn
that in this world he must endure to have his dearest wishes thwarted;
and till adversity has taught him that, his feelings will not be manly,
nor his conduct sensible."
"Poor fellow!" said Henri, "if adversity will teach him, he is likely
to get his lesson now. Did he part quietly with you, Agatha, on the day
before we started to Saumur?"
"Anything but quietly," said she. "I would not tell you all he said, for
on the eve of a battle in which you were to fight side by side, I did
not wish to make you angry with your friend and companion: but had a
raging madman, just escaped from his keepers, come to offer me his hand,
his conduct could not have been worse than Adolphe Denot's."
"Was he violent with you, Agatha?"
"He did not offer to strike me, nor yet to touch me, if you mean that:
but he threatened me; and that in such awful sounding, and yet
ridiculous language, that you would hardly know whether to laugh or to
be angry if I could repeat it.
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