I own I feed him, as I do other vermin that infest my
house."

"But where is he?" reiterated the notary with
growing impatience, and seeming resolved to take no
denial.

"Where is he?" echoed the advocate: "ask his
mother; yes, sir, ask his dam. Oh, Monsieur Veuil-
lot, is there not deep damnation in thus having
an idiot for one's child? Here is your purgatory: --
purgatory? no: for purgatory is a kind of half-way
house to heaven, but this son of mine is to me a
slippery stepping-stone to perdition. Sir, a child
should be a cherub to lift its parents' spirit to the
skies; but mine, oh!" -- and a spasm of agony passed
over the old man's visage, succeeded by a forced
expression of calmness, as he continued:

"Veuillot, you have heard of Solomon. He
speaks of the foolish son of a wise father. He was
himself the father of a fool, that rent the kingdom,
-- Rehoboam I mean, -- and he kept concubines, too;
so I suppose he waxed fruitful in fools. I have but
one fool, therefore I am thankful; -- but then he is a
thorough fool, a most unmitigated, and unmitigatable
fool; the fool of fools, a finished fool, the pink of
fools; a most preposterous, backwards-going, crab-like
fool; a filthy fool; an idiot, sir, without either parts
or particle of ambition; an ape, an owl that flits
about by day; a bat, and a bad bat, that flits from
tavern to sty; chief of the devil's nightingales;
a raven that, roving to foul roosts, goes beating the
bosom of the night; a soul that loves the darkness;
a mole, sir, a blind mole; a piece of animated per-
versity, a creature that persists to go astray."

[[22]]

p021 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p022w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p023

v?