The things we do!

CHAPTER XLVI
The Hotel de Florac

Since the death of the Duc d'Ivry, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots,
the Comte de Florac, who is now the legitimate owner of the ducal title,
does not choose to bear it, but continues to be known in the world by his
old name. The old Count's world is very small. His doctor, and his
director, who comes daily to play his game of piquet; his daughter's
children, who amuse him by their laughter, and play round his chair in
the garden of his hotel; his faithful wife, and one or two friends as old
as himself, form his society. His son the Abbe is with them but seldom.
The austerity of his manners frightens his old father, who can little
comprehend the religionism of the new school. After going to hear his son
preach through Lent at Notre-Dame, where the Abbe de Florac gathered a
great congregation, the old Count came away quite puzzled at his son's
declamations. "I do not understand your new priests," he says; "I knew my
son had become a Cordelier; I went to hear him, and found he was a
Jacobin.


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