Part 13 (1/2)
”Poor Pierrot,” said Bijou compa.s.sionately, ”he is not as ignorant as all that!” And then, as her uncle did not answer, she added: ”And then, too, he is ever so nice, and he is so strong and well.”
”Oh, as to that,” said M. de Jonzac, ”his health is perfect, and that just makes him all the more insufferable, but not any more intelligent though. Everyone complains about the overtaxing of the intellectual faculties; they say that it is the ruin of children; and so, by way of improvement, they go in now for overtaxing them physically, which is a more certain ruin still.”
”Ah, uncle is waging war now,” put in Bertrade; ”but I am of his opinion, too, for I do not like to think that some day my children will add to the number of the young ruffians we see around us.”
”But,” objected Henry de Bracieux, ”many of them--and some quite young, too--are very intellectual; I know some.”
”I, too, know some,” said Jean de Blaye; ”but, to my way of thinking, they are not precisely intellectual, they are--”
Just at this moment a bell was rung in the hall.
”We must go to luncheon, children,” said the marchioness, rising, ”Jean will finish his little definition for us at table.”
”Oh, I am not particularly keen about it, aunt,” said Jean, laughing.
”I am, though; I am no longer 'in the know' of things, as you say, and I don't object to be instructed about certain matters on which I am absolutely ignorant.”
On taking her seat at table, the marchioness, addressing Jean, continued:
”You were saying that the young men who were not precisely the intellectual ones were--”
”Oh, I am not good at explanations,” he replied.
”That does not matter; go on, anyhow.”
”Well, those who are not really intellectual are of the sickly kind; they act that sort of thing to begin with, and then they end by getting like it in reality; they are intolerably affected, effeminate, crazy, and everything else beside. They set up for being original, and not like anyone else.”
”Well, and what do you call them?”
”I don't exactly know; they are of the complex kind. There's young La Balue, for instance, he's a perfect example for you of this cla.s.s; you might study him.”
”That's an idea that has never entered my head; but, in the young generation of to-day, there are others beside these complex ones.”
”Yes, they are the athletes.”
”Specimen, Pierrot!”--remarked Henry de Bracieux.
The marchioness turned towards her grandson.
”Don't be personal,” she said. ”Continue your little speech, Jean.”
”I would rather eat my egg in peace, aunt!”
”We had got as far as the athletes--”
”Well, then, if the complex young men of to-day are a trifle sickening, the athletes are the greatest nuisances under the sun.
Boxing, football, bicycles, matches, and records--all that, they consider of the most tremendous and vital importance, not only in their conversation, but, what is more regrettable still, in their lives. In their opinion, a man of worth is the one who can give the hardest blows, or who is endowed with the greatest strength or vigour; all their admiration is bestowed on one single being in the world--_the Champion_, with a capital C.”
”And what is there between the complex young man and the athletes?”