In effect, since peace is always in some measure
dependent on one's own seeking, disturbing forces do but fray their
way along somewhat narrow paths over the great spaces of the quiet
realm of nature. La Beauce, vast enough to present at once every
phase of weather, its one landmark the twin spires of Chartres,
salient as the finger of a dial, guiding, by their change of
perspective, victor or vanquished on his way, offered room enough
[20] for the business both of peace and war to those enamoured of
either. When Gaston, after a brief absence, was unable to find his
child's garden-bed, that was only because in a fine June the corn had
grown tall so quickly, through which he was presently led to it, with
all its garish sweets undisturbed: and it was with the ancient
growths of mind--customs, beliefs, mental preferences--as with the
natural world.
It may be understood that there was a certain rudeness about the old
manor, left almost untouched from age to age, with a loyalty which
paid little or no heed to changes of fashion. The Chateau d'Amour,
indeed, as the work of a later age, refined somewhat upon the rough
feudal architecture; and the daintier taste had centred itself in
particular upon one apartment, a veritable woman's apartment, with an
effect in some degree anticipating the achievement of Gaston's own
century, in which the apparatus of daily life became so eloquent of
the moods of those to whom it ministered.
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