Sometimes he thought--perhaps years hence--that solitary, friendless lady, pent up in squalor, might turn to him as to a friend and comforter--and then--and then--.

Meanwhile Jean Morin was most attentive to his aunt, whom he had rather slighted before.

He would linger over the accounts; would bring her little presents; and, above all, he made a pet and favourite of Pierre, the little cousin, who could tell him about all the ways of going on of Mam'selle Cannes, as Virginie was called.

Pierre was thoroughly aware of the drift and cause of his cousin's inquiries; and was his ardent partisan, as I have heard, even before Jean Morin had exactly acknowledged his wishes to himself.
"It must have required some patience and much diplomacy, before Clement de Crequy found out the exact place where his cousin was hidden.

The old gardener took the cause very much to heart; as, judging from my recollections, I imagine he would have forwarded any fancy, however wild, of Monsieur Clement's.