The baron's
studious nature had endeared him very much to Pere Yvon, with whom he
was a prime favourite, and who had never shown him any of the severity
of which the other brothers often complained, but, on the contrary, had
erred on the opposite side with the baron, whose wishes had never been
crossed in any way, and who had grown up to think himself the one
important person in the world to whom the convenience of everyone else
must be sacrificed.
For the first year of their married life the pretty baroness had
contributed as much as Pere Yvon to spoil her husband, whose every whim
she had humoured until her baby was born, and then, much to his
astonishment, the baron found that his beautiful, gentle wife had a will
of her own, and, what was still worse in his eyes, a large place in her
heart for someone else besides himself, and although that someone else
was only his infant daughter, the baron was jealous.
In vain had he urged that the baby should be sent away to some peasant
to nurse until it was a year or two old, as he and all his brothers had
been, after a very common custom in French families.
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