After his death she lived with her mother in very straitened circumstances; and Lescande, on occasion of his last visit, found her with soiled cuffs.  Immediately after he received the following note: 

“Pardon me, dear cousin!  Pardon my not wearing white cuffs.  But I must tell you that we can change our cuffs—­my mother and I—­only three times a week.  As to her, one would never discover it.  She is neat as a bird.  I also try to be; but, alas! when I practise the piano, my cuffs rub.  After this explanation, my good Theodore, I hope you will love me as before.

“Juliette.”

Lescande wept over this note.  Luckily he had his prospects as an architect; and Juliette had promised to wait for him ten years, by which time he would either be dead, or living deliciously in a humble house with his cousin.  He showed the note, and unfolded his plans to Camors.  “This is the only ambition I have, or which I can have,” added Lescande.  “You are different.  You are born for great things.”

“Listen, my old Lescande,” replied Camors, who had just passed his rhetoric examination in triumph.  “I do not know but that my destiny may be ordinary; but I am sure my heart can never be.  There I feel transports—­passions, which give me sometimes great joy, sometimes inexpressible suffering.  I burn to discover a world—­to save a nation—­to love a queen!  I understand nothing but great ambitions and noble alliances, and as for sentimental love, it troubles me but little.  My activity pants for a nobler and a wider field!

“I intend to attach myself to one of the great social parties, political or religious, that agitate the world at this era.  Which one I know not yet, for my opinions are not very fixed.  But as soon as I leave college I shall devote myself to seeking the truth.  And truth is easily found.  I shall read all the newspapers.

“Besides, Paris is an intellectual highway, so brilliantly lighted it is only necessary to open one’s eyes and have good faith and independence, to find the true road.

“And I am in excellent case for this, for though born a gentleman, I have no prejudices.  My father, who is himself very enlightened and very liberal, leaves me free.  I have an uncle who is a Republican; an aunt who is a Legitimist—­and what is still more, a saint; and another uncle who is a Conservative.  It is not vanity that leads me to speak of these things; but only a desire to show you that, having a foot in all parties, I am quite willing to compare them dispassionately and make a good choice.  Once master of the holy truth, you may be sure, dear old Lescande, I shall serve it unto death—­with my tongue, with my pen, and with my sword!”

Such sentiments as these, pronounced with sincere emotion and accompanied by a warm clasp of the hand, drew tears from the old Lescande, otherwise called Wolfhead.

CHAPTER II