But the old man was further
captivated by the young fellow's spirit of enterprise, the four modern
languages which he spoke so readily, and the evident mastery which he
would some day show in the management of a business which extended over
the five parts of the world. In his childhood, among his brothers and
sisters, Ambroise had always been the boldest, most captivating and
self-assertive. The others might be better than he, but he reigned over
them like a handsome, ambitious, greedy boy, a future man of gayety and
conquest. And this indeed he proved to be; by the charm of his victorious
intellect he conquered old Du Hordel in a few months, even as later on he
was destined to vanquish everybody and everything much as he pleased. His
strength lay in his power of pleasing and his power of action, a blending
of grace with the most assiduous industry.
About this time Seguin and his uncle, who had never set foot in the house
of the Avenue d'Antin since insanity had reigned there, drew together
again. Their apparent reconciliation was the outcome of a drama shrouded
in secrecy. Seguin, hard up and in debt, cast off by Nora, who divined
his approaching ruin, and preyed upon by other voracious creatures, had
ended by committing, on the turf, one of those indelicate actions which
honest people call thefts.
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