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MARIA FELICIA

teased the old man, and thus grieved the son all the more. What regard should they have for people who fell into disgrace with the nobility on account of their presumption? Surely the Count would have been pleased to see his servants teaching humbleness and modesty to the porter’s son, who proudly tried to elevate himself above his fellow-servants, and from his childhood had had something eccentric and aristocratic about him. He had never played with the rest of the children, but had sat alone, dreaming in the shadiest places of the orchard, or reading old books in some corner of the Palace. Andrew, now doing his work so faithfully and conscientiously that his bitterest enemy could find nothing for which to reproach him, never allowing himself to be seen with a book, behaving as the least among the last, doing for others all the coarse and difficult work when he saw that they lacked either the inclination or the ability to do it, yet failed to overcome the hatred of his companions.

By tormenting the father and degrading the