He went on before with the lighted lamp, while his companion forced the horses to come by his hand on the bridle.
"You appear to know all about this Baron of Taverney, my lad!" he began the dialogue.
"I have lived on his estate since a child."
At this word the youth's cheek colored up, though usually pale, and he quivered.
"I am no man's servant, sir," he retorted. "I am son of one who was a farmer for the baron, and my mother nursed Mademoiselle Andrea."
"I understand; you belong to the household as foster-brother of the young lady--I suppose she is young?"
He had answered only one of the two questions, and not the one personal to him.
"How did you chance to be on the road in such weather?" inquired the other, making the same reflection as our own.
"I was not on the road, but in the cave, reading a book called 'The Social Contract,' by one Rousseau."
"Oh, found the book in the lord's library?" asked the gentleman with some astonishment.
"No, I bought it of a peddler who, like others of his trade, has been hawking good books hereabouts."
"Who told you 'The Contract' was a good book?"
"I found that out by reading it, in comparison with some infamous ones in the baron's library."
"The baron gets indecent books, always costly, in this hole?"
"He does not spend money on them as they are sent him from Paris by his friend the Marshal Duke of Richelieu."
"Oh! of course he does not let his daughter see such stuff?"
"He leaves them about, but Mademoiselle Andrea does not read them," rejoined the youth, drily.
The mocking traveler was briefly silent. He was interested in this singular character, in whom was blended good and evil, shame and boldness.
"I did not know what they were until read; but I kept on as they taught me what I was unaware of. But 'The Contract' told me what I had guessed, that all men are brothers, society badly arranged, and that instead of being serfs and slaves, individuals are equal."
"Whew!" whistled the gentleman, as they went on. "You seem to be hungry to learn?"
"Yes, it is my greatest wish to know everything, so as to rise----"
Gilbert paused, for having a goal in his mind, he wanted to keep it hidden.
"How study when I was not rich and was cooped up in Taverney? I can read and write; but I shall learn the rest somehow one of these days."