Poor Lucilio had once been eloquent and had detested written speech; and sometimes even now he suffered from being obliged to compress his thought in a few words; but misfortune is always of some profit to the elect. It happened that his disinclination to write long, and his impatience to disclose his thought, compelled him and accustomed him to summarize his ideas with marvellous clearness and force, and that the child was nourished upon facts, without useless details and fatiguing repetitions. The lessons were surprisingly short, and carried with them to that young mind a certainty of insight which was exceedingly rare at that time, and for good reason. Bois-Doré, for his part, albeit he directed his child's attention to trivial and foolish things, kept him pure and good, by virtue of that mysterious insufflation which takes place between one noble nature and another, without volition or knowledge. All children are naturally disposed to resist too precise instruction; they follow more readily an instinct which leads them, having itself no knowledge where it is going. When the marquis was disturbed in his puerile occupations, to render a service or give alms, he never displayed either vexation or weariness. He would rise, listen, ask questions, encourage and act. Although naturally indolent and easy-going, he was never bored by any complaint, never lost patience with any poor old woman's loquacity. Thus, while apparently devoting his life to trifles, he passed very few moments in that placid, benevolent life without doing good or affording pleasure to somebody. Thus his day, always begun with fine projects of work for his son--he gave the name of work to attention to the toilet and instruction in good manners,--was passed without deciding upon anything, without undertaking anything, and leaving everything to the wise decisions of Adamas and the captivating caprices of the child. XXXVIII Meanwhile, after the lapse of a few weeks, they had succeeded in equipping Mario as a gentleman of quality, thanks to Adamas's untiring zeal and the Moorish woman's clever wit, and the marquis had succeeded in giving him some notions of horsemanship and fencing. Moreover the old man and the child held mutually agreeable sessions every morning for lessons in manners. The marquis would make his pupil go in and out of the room ten times, to teach him how to enter gracefully and courteously and how to retire modestly.