Monsieur de Jordy, like the doctor, had come to die in Nemours, but he
knew no one except the abbe, who was always at the beck and call of
his parishioners, and Madame de Portenduere, who went to bed at nine
o'clock. So, much against his will, he too had taken to going to bed
early, in spite of the thorns that beset his pillow. It was therefore
a great piece of good fortune for him (as well as for the doctor) when
he encountered a man who had known the same world and spoken the same
language as himself; with whom he could exchange ideas, and who went
to bed late. After Monsieur de Jordy, the Abbe Chaperon, and Minoret
had passed one evening together they found so much pleasure in it that
the priest and soldier returned every night regularly at nine o'clock,
the hour at which, little Ursula having gone to bed, the doctor was
free. All three would then sit up till midnight or one o'clock.
After a time this trio became a quartette. Another man to whom life
was known, and who owed to his practical training as a lawyer, the
indulgence, knowledge, observation, shrewdness, and talent for
conversation which the soldier, doctor, and priest owed to their
practical dealings with the souls, diseases, and education of men, was
added to the number.
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