That he was quite happy there is not to be supposed. A man of his
almost Spartan habits, accustomed to plain fare and self-help, was
a little uneasy in this sybaritic abode, with its soft carpets,
profusion of gilding, and battalion of sleek, silent-footed servants
- for Kercadiou the younger had left his entire household behind.
Time, which at Gavrillac he had kept so fully employed in agrarian
concerns, here hung heavily upon his hands. In self-defence he
slept a great deal, and but for Aline, who made no attempt to
conceal her delight at this proximity to Paris and the heart of
things, it is possible that he would have beat a retreat almost at
once from surroundings that sorted so ill with his habits. Later
on, perhaps, he would accustom himself and grow resigned to this
luxurious inactivity. In the meantime the novelty of it fretted
him, and it was into the presence of a peevish and rather somnolent
M. de Kercadiou that Andre-Louis was ushered in the early hours of
the afternoon of that Sunday in June. He was unannounced, as had
ever been the custom at Gavrillac.
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