She was utterly ignorant of the practical meaning of life, of the proper value of things and the necessity for order.

She let her children grow up like those plum-trees which sprout along the highways at the pleasure of the rain and sun.

They bore their natural fruits like wild stock which has never known grafting or pruning.

Never was nature allowed such complete sway, never did such mischievous creatures grow up more freely under the sole influence of instinct.

They rolled among the vegetables, passed their days in the open air playing and fighting like good-for-nothing urchins.
They stole provisions from the house and pillaged the few fruit-trees in the enclosure; they were the plundering, squalling, familiar demons of this strange abode of lucid insanity.