Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/108

 the doctor yielded to his adopted daughter’s softly, tenderly spoken arguments as if they were caresses, breathed by the warmest and purest affection. Believers and unbelievers speak two different languages and can never agree. The godchild, in pleading God’s cause, would ill-treat her godfather just as a spoilt child sometimes ill-treats its mother. The curé gently reproved Ursule, and told her that God reserved the right to humble these haughty spirits. The young girl answered that David had discomfited Goliath. This religious difference and the regrets of the child who wanted to win her guardian to God were the only sorrows of this home life, so sweet and satisfied, hidden away from the eyes of the inquisitive little town. Ursule was growing and developing, and becoming the modest and religiously educated young girl that Désiré had admired coming out of church. The culture of flowers in the garden, music, her guardian’s pleasures and all the little attentions that Ursule paid him—for she had relieved La Bougival by attending to him—filled the hours, days and months of this quiet existence. Nevertheless, for a year the doctor had been anxious about some trouble with Ursule; but the cause had been so much expected, that he did not worry himself further than to watch over her health. And yet, this sagacious observer and profound practitioner thought that these troubles had had some sort of echo in the mind. He watched his ward as a mother would, but could not see anyone around her who was