One person alone never vouchsafed to bestow the slightest glance
of encouragement upon my little imp of Africa, and this was comte
Jean, who even went so far as to awe him into silence either by a
frown or a gesture of impatience; his most lively tricks could
not win a smile from the count, who was either thoughtful or
preoccupied with some ambitious scheme of fortune. Zamor
soon felt a species of instinctive dread of this overpowering and
awe-inspiring genius, whose sudden appearance would chill him
in his wildest fits of mirthful mischief, and send him cowering
to a corner of the room; where he would remain huddled together,
and apparently stupefied and motionless, till the count quitted
the apartment.
At the moment of my writing this, Zamor still resides under my
roof. During the years he has passed with me he has gained in
height, but in none of the intellectual qualities does he seem to
have made any progress; age has only stripped him of the charms
of infancy without supplying others in their place; nor can I
venture to affirm, that his gratitude and devotion to me are such
as I have reason to expect they should be;* for I can with truth
affirm, that I have never ceased to lavish kindness on him, and
to be, in every sense of the word, a good mistress to him.
*This wretch, whom the comtesse du Barry
loaded with her favours and benefits, conducted
her to the scaffold.
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