He was so sickly, when he came into the world, that they thought he must die; but notwithstanding these anticipations, which might be called hopes, he continued to live, suffering and deformed.
He was deprived of all joys as well as of all the attractions of childhood.

He was oppressed because he was weak, and laughed at for his deformity.

In vain the little hunchback opened his arms to the world: the world scoffed at him, and went its way.
However, he still had his mother, and it was to her that the child directed all the feelings of a heart repelled by others.

With her he found shelter, and was happy, till he reached the age when a man must take his place in life; and Maurice had to content himself with that which others had refused with contempt.

His education would have qualified him for any course of life; and he became an octroi-clerk--[The octroi is the tax on provisions levied at the entrance of the town]--in one of the little toll-houses at the entrance of his native town.
He was always shut up in this dwelling of a few feet square, with no relaxation from the office accounts but reading and his mother's visits.
On fine summer days she came to work at the door of his hut, under the shade of a clematis planted by Maurice.