style, that the students were unable to say a word in reply, and the professor was obliged to rise in support of his own thesis. He also actually became cornered, and knew not how to defend his own position, when to his infinite relief the clock struck twelve, which put an end to the discussion.
My mother's death, at the age of sixty-three, took place about the time that I had completed my college course and taken my degree. After she became a widow, she devoted herself with the greatest assiduity to her children, doing all that lay in her power both for their temporal and eternal welfare. She was tender and affectionate to them, but at the same time rigid in requiring from them a strict fulfilment of their duties.
You must know, that in France, a man is considered a minor until he is twenty-five years old. I was therefore, according to law, still in my minority, but my brothers did not want to be troubled with looking after my property; they therefore made me of age, or free, soon after the death of my mother. My brothers and sisters were all married, and they had long ago received the principal part of their portions, so it did not require very long to come to an amicable arrangement in the division of what was left. I paid to them severally the small sums to which they were entitled, and then I remained sole proprietor of the estates of Jenouillé and Jaffé , by which I possessed, not only a good comfortable dwelling-house for my residence, but an annual income of about 1000 francs.
