"Be calm, my child; these tears, too, have their sweetness. Well, the brother I speak of, this young beloved brother, who made my joy and my love, I lost. That is why I felt for you such a quick and keen interest, that is why I wish to return you to your mother as you were in the olden time, because it is to return you to happiness." The accent, the countenance of David, as he uttered these words, were of such a melancholy, pathetic sweetness that Frederick, more and more affected, answered, timidly: "Forgive me, M. David, for having thought you were laughing at me, but--" "But what I said to you seemed so strange, did it not, that you could not believe that I was speaking seriously?" "That is true." "So it ought to be, nevertheless my words are sincere, and I am going to prove it to you." Frederick fixed on David a look full of pain and eager curiosity. "Yes, my child, envy, in itself, is an excellent quality; only you, up to this time, have applied it improperly,--you have envied wickedly instead of envying well." "Envy well! Envy an excellent quality!" repeated Frederick, as if he could not believe his ears. "Envy, frightful envy, which corrodes, which devours, which kills!" "My poor child, the Loire came near, just now, being your tomb. Had that misfortune happened, would not your mother have cried, 'Oh, the accursed river which kills,--accursed river which has swallowed up my son!'" "Alas, M. David!" "And if these fears of inundation are realised, how many despairing hearts will cry, 'Oh, accursed river! our houses are swept away, our fields submerged.' Are not these maledictions just?" "Only too just, M. David." "Yes; and yet this river so cursed fertilises its shores. It is the wealth of the cities by which it flows. Thousands of boats, laden with provisions of all sorts, plough its waves; this river so cursed accomplishes truly a useful mission, that God has given to everything he has created, because to say that God has created rivers for inundation and disaster would be a blasphemy. No, no! It is man, whose ignorance, whose carelessness, whose egotism, whose greed, and whose disdain change the gifts of the Creator into plagues." Frederick, struck with his preceptor's words, listened to him with increasing interest.