And it was really
an example, a brave and a necessary one, that Marianne and he were
giving, in order that manners and customs, and the idea of morality and
the idea of beauty might be changed.
Full of these thoughts Mathieu was already opening his mouth to speak.
But all at once he felt how futile discussion would be in presence of
that admirable scene; that mother surrounded by such a florescence of
vigorous children; that mother nursing yet another child, under the big
oak which she had planted. She was bravely accomplishing her task--that
of perpetuating the world. And hers was the sovereign beauty.
Mathieu could think of only one thing that would express everything, and
that was to kiss her with all his heart before the whole assembly.
"There, dear wife! You are the most beautiful and the best! May all the
others do as you have done."
Then, when Marianne had gloriously returned his kiss, there arose an
acclamation, a tempest of merry laughter. They were both of heroic mould;
it was with a great dash of heroism that they had steered their bark
onward, thanks to their full faith in life, their will of action, and the
force of their love.
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