It is quite true that a man may be a second father to you, and yet take too much to drink; but the best natures are ever slow to accept such truths.
The Doctor thoroughly possessed his heart, but perhaps he exaggerated his influence over his mind.

Certainly Jean-Marie adopted some of his master's opinions, but I have yet to learn that he ever surrendered one of his own.

Convictions existed in him by divine right; they were virgin, unwrought, the brute metal of decision.

He could add others indeed, but he could not put away; neither did he care if they were perfectly agreed among themselves; and his spiritual pleasures had nothing to do with turning them over or justifying them in words.

Words were with him a mere accomplishment, like dancing.