may say so. See,
there is no one near; and, old as I am, I have still a fist as good as
yours. We can exchange a few healthy blows--that is Nature's way. And,
though I do not approve of it, I never refuse satisfaction to any
one who demands it. There are some men, I know, who would die of
mortification if they did not have their revenge: and it has taken
me--yes, the man you see before you--more than fifty years to forget an
insult I once received . . . and even now, whenever I think of it, my
hatred of the nobles springs up again, and I hold it as a crime to have
let my heart forgive some of them."

"I am fully satisfied, Master Patience; and in truth I now feel nothing
but affection for you."

"Ah, that comes of my scratching your back. Youth is ever generous.
Come, Mauprat, take courage. Follow the abbe's advice; he is a good
man. Try to please your cousin; she is a star in the firmament. Find out
truth; love the people; hate those who hate them; be ready to sacrifice
yourself for them. . . . Yes, one word more--listen. I know what I am
saying--become the people's friend."

"Is the people, then, better than the nobility, Patience? Come now,
honestly, since you are a wise man, tell me the truth."

"Ay, we are worth more than the nobles, because they trample us under
foot, and we let them. But we shall not always bear this, perhaps. No;
you will have to know it sooner or later, and I may as well tell you
now. You see yonder stars? They will never change. Ten thousand years
hence they will be in the same place and be giving forth as much light
as to-day; but within the next hundred years, maybe within less, there
will be many a change on this earth. Take the word of a man who has an
eye for the truth of things, and does not let himself be led astray by
the fine airs of the great. The poor have suffered enough; they will
turn upon the rich, and their castles will fail and their lands be
carved up. I shall not see it; but you will. There will be ten cottages
in the place of this park, and ten families will live on its revenue.
There will no longer be servants or masters, or villein or lord. Some
nobles will cry aloud and yield only to force, as your uncles would do
if they were alive, and as M. de la Marche will do in spite of all his
fine talk. Others will sacrifice themselves generously, like Edmee, and
like yourself, if you listen to wisdom. And in that hour it will be well
for Edmee that her husband is a man and