I had very quickly attached myself to my grown cousins, and I felt as well acquainted with them as if I had always known them.

I believe it is necessary that there should be the bond of blood for the creation of those intimate relations between people, who but the day before were almost ignorant of each other's existence.

I also loved my uncle and aunt; my aunt especially, who spoiled me a little, and who was so good and still so beautiful in spite of her sixty years, her gray hair and her grandmotherly way of dressing herself.

In these levelling days, wherein one person is so like another, people of my aunt's type no longer exist.

Born in the neighborhood, of a very ancient family, she had never been away from this province of France, and her manners, her hospitality, and her exquisite courtesy had a local stamp, every detail of which pleased me greatly.
In direct contrast to my sheltered home life, here I lived almost entirely out of doors.