I hated his fashion of mentioning love; I abhorred, from my soul, mere licentiousness.

He felt the difference of our notions, and, by mutual consent, we kept off ground debateable.
Pelet's house was kept and his kitchen managed by his mother, a real old Frenchwoman; she had been handsome--at least she told me so, and I strove to believe her; she was now ugly, as only continental old women can be; perhaps, though, her style of dress made her look uglier than she really was.

Indoors she would go about without cap, her grey hair strangely dishevelled; then, when at home, she seldom wore a gown--only a shabby cotton camisole; shoes, too, were strangers to her feet, and in lieu of them she sported roomy slippers, trodden down at the heels.

On the other hand, whenever it was her pleasure to appear abroad, as on Sundays and fete-days, she would put on some very brilliant-coloured dress, usually of thin texture, a silk bonnet with a wreath of flowers, and a very fine shawl.

She was not, in the main, an ill-natured old woman, but an incessant and most indiscreet talker; she kept chiefly in and about the kitchen, and seemed rather to avoid her son's august presence; of him, indeed, she evidently stood in awe.