He has become the most charitable of men, and the most
religious; he is churchwarden of the parish, and has made himself the
providence of the unfortunate.
"The poor take the place of my son," he said.
If you have ever noticed by the wayside, in countries where they poll
the oaks, some old tree, whitened and as if blasted, still throwing
out its twigs though its trunk is riven and seems to implore the axe,
you will have an idea of the old post master, with his white hair,
--broken, emaciated, in whom the elders of the town can see no trace
of the jovial dullard whom you first saw watching for his son at the
beginning of this history; he does not even take his snuff as he once
did; he carries something more now than the weight of his body.
Beholding him, we feel that the hand of God was laid upon that figure
to make it an awful warning. After hating so violently his uncle's
godchild the old man now, like Doctor Minoret himself, has
concentrated all his affections on her, and has made himself the
manager of her property in Nemours.
Monsieur and Madame de Portenduere pass five months of the year in
Paris, where they have bought a handsome house in the Faubourg
Saint-Germain.
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