an excellent opinion of herself, an opinion not wholly
undeserved, for she possessed some good and sterling qualities; but she rather
over-estimated the kind and degree of these qualities, and quite left out of the
account sundry little defects which accompanied them. You could never have
persuaded her that she was a prejudiced and narrow-minded person, that she was
too susceptible on the subject of her own dignity and importance, and too apt to
take offence about trifles; yet all this was true. However, where her claims to
distinction were not opposed, and where her prejudices were not offended, she
could be kind and friendly enough. To her two brothers (for there was another
Gérard Moore besides Robert), she was very much attached. As the sole remaining
representatives of their decayed family, the persons of both were almost sacred
in her eyes; of Louis, however, she knew less than of Robert; he had been sent
to England when a mere boy, and had received his education at an English school.
His education not being such as to adapt him for trade, perhaps, too, his
natural bent not inclining him to mercantile pursuits, he had, when the blight
of hereditary prospects renderedit necessary for him to push his own fortune,
adopted the very arduous and very modest career of a teacher; he had been usher
in a school, and was said now to be tutor in a private family. Hortense, when
she mentioned Louis, described him as having what she called »des moyens,« but
as being too backward and quiet: her praise of Robert was in a different strain,
less qualified; she was very proud of him; she regarded him as the greatest man
in Europe; all he said and did was remarkable in her eyes, and she expected
others to behold him from the same point of view; nothing could be more
irrational, monstrous, and infamous, than opposition from any quarter to Robert,
unless it were opposition to herself.
    Accordingly, as soon as the said Robert was seated at the breakfast table,
and she had helped him to a portion of stewed pears, and cut him a good-sized
Belgian tartine, she began to pour out a flood of amazement and horror at the
transaction of last night, the destruction of the frames.
    »Quelle idée! to destroy them. Quelle action honteuse! On voyait bien que
les ouvriers de ce pays étaient à la fois bêtes et méchants. C'était absolument
comme les domestiques Anglais, les servantes surtout: rien d'insupportable comme
cette Sara, par exemple!«
    »She