The presence of a woman stultified the poor fellow,
who was driven by passion on the one hand as violently as the lack of
ideas, resulting from his education, held him back on the other.
Paralyzed between these opposing forces, he had not a word to say, and
feared to be spoken to, so much did he dread the obligation of
replying. Desire, which usually sets free the tongue, only petrified
his powers of speech. Thus it happened that Jean-Jacques Rouget was
solitary and sought solitude because there alone he was at his ease.
The doctor had seen, too late for remedy, the havoc wrought in his
son's life by a temperament and a character of this kind. He would
have been glad to get him married; but to do that, he must deliver him
over to an influence that was certain to become tyrannical, and the
doctor hesitated. Was it not practically giving the whole management
of the property into the hands of a stranger, some unknown girl? The
doctor knew how difficult it was to gain true indications of the moral
character of a woman from any study of a young girl. So, while he
continued to search for a daughter-in-law whose sentiments and
education offered some guarantees for the future, he endeavored to
push his son into the ways of avarice; meaning to give the poor fool a
sort of instinct that might eventually take the place of intelligence.
He trained him, in the first place, to mechanical habits of life; and
instilled into him fixed ideas as to the investment of his revenues:
and he spared him the chief difficulties of the management of a
fortune, by leaving his estates all in good order, and leased for long
periods.
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