Once
when he came home a day or two before me, he made himself quite
intolerable to the whole house, by insisting on making Armantine and
her little brother defend a fortress on the top of the stairs, which
he attacked with the hard balls of silk and wool out of our work-
baskets. Annora tried to stop him, but only was kicked for her
pains. It was his HOTEL he said, and he was master there, and so he
went on, though he had given poor Armantine a black eye, and broken
two panes of glass, till his uncle came home, and came upon him with
a stern 'Gaspard.' The boy began again with his being the Marquis
and the master, but Eustace put him down at once.
'Thou mayst be Marquis, but thou art not master of this house, nor of
thyself. Thou art not even a gentleman while thou actest thus. Go
to thy room. We will see what thy mother says to this.'
Gaspard durst not struggle with his uncle, and went off silent and
sulky; but Eustace had subdued him into penitence before I came home.
And I can hardly tell how, but from that time the principle of
loyalty to the sovereign, without imitation of the person, seemed to
have been instilled into the child, so that I feel, and I am sure he
will agree with me, that I owe my son, and he owes himself, to the
influence of my dear brother.
Had it not been for leaving him, my service to Mademoiselle would
have been altogether amusing. True, she was marvelously egotistical
and conceited, but she was very good-natured, and liked to make those
about her happy.
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