In the same manner as she adored him without any garrulous effusiveness, he felt a secret, almost bashful, affection for her.

While he was really very grateful to her for having taken him in and brought him up, he could not help regarding her as an extraordinary creature, a prey to some strange malady, whom he ought to pity and respect.

No doubt there was not sufficient life left in Adelaide; she was too white and too stiff for Silvere to throw himself on her neck.
Thus they lived together amidst melancholy silence, in the depths of which they felt the tremor of boundless love.
The sad, solemn atmosphere, which he had breathed from childhood, gave Silvere a strong heart, in which gathered every form of enthusiasm.

He early became a serious, thoughtful little man, seeking instruction with a kind of stubbornness.

He only learnt a little spelling and arithmetic at the school of the Christian Brothers, which he was compelled to leave when he was but twelve years old, on account of his apprenticeship.