Page:George Sand by Bertha Thomas.djvu/37

Rh her end was not far off, would gladly have first assured a husband's protection for her ward, whom she had now succeeded in really dissociating from her natural guardian. The girl's bringing-up, and an almost complete separation for the last five years, had made a gap—in habits of mind and feeling—such as could hardly be quite bridged over, between her mother and herself. But though beginning to be sadly aware of this and of the increasing violence and asperities of poor Madame Maurice Dupin's temper which made peace under one roof with her a matter of difficulty, Aurore hung back from the notion of marriage, and clearly was much too young to be urged into taking so serious a step. So to Nohant she returned from the convent in the spring of 1820. There she continued to strike that judicious compromise between temporal and spiritual duties and pleasures enjoined on her by her clerical adviser. Still bent on choosing a monastic life, when free to choose for herself, she was reconciled in the meantime to take things as they came, and to make herself happy and add to the happiness of her grand-mother in the ordinary way. So we find her enjoying the visit of one of her school friends, getting up little plays to amuse the elders, practising the harp, receiving from her brother Hippolyte—now a noisy hussar—during his brief visits home, her first initiation into the arts of riding—for the future her favourite exercise—and of pistol-shooting; and last, but not least, beginning