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There he would light his pipe, and sit huddled up, waiting quietly until the usual storm of questions was over. The two Kraffts, Jean-Christophe's father and grandfather, had a jeering contempt for him. The little freak seemed ridiculous to them, and their pride was touched by the low degree of the peddler.
He had a little of the uncompromising probity of the Kraffts, which, in all questions of morality and honor, suffered no discussion, and never would admit the least of those small moral impurities which so many people in society regard not altogether as faults. He was brave, and whenever there was any danger faced it with a sort of enjoyment.
Accustomed to bow without dispute to the intellectual superiority of the Kraffts, she had no doubt that her husband and father-in-law were right; but she loved her brother, and her brother had for her a dumb adoration.
The ruin of his family, which only Jean Michel had withheld, proceeded apace when he was removed. With him the Kraffts had lost their chief means of support, and misery entered the house. Melchior increased it. Far from working more, he abandoned himself utterly to his vice when he was free of the only force that had held him in check.
He had inherited from his father and grandfather their robust constitutions. They were not mollycoddles in that family; well or ill, they never worried, and nothing could bring about any change in the habits of the two Kraffts, father and son.
There is nothing in him that does not believe in happiness, and does not cling to it with all his little strength and passion!... Life will soon see to it that he is brought to reason. L'alba vinceva l'ora, mattutina. Che fuggia 'nnanzi, si che di lontano Conobbi il tremolar della marina.... Purgatorio, i. The Kraffts came originally from Antwerp.
Jean-Christophe's antic outbursts, his violence, his fantastic humor, made her think sometimes that he was a little unbalanced; she saw in him one of the Kraffts, honest men and good musicians, but always a little wrong in the head. Her light irony escaped Jean-Christophe; he was conscious only of Frau von Kerich's kindness. He was so unused to any one being kind to him!
With the Kraffts robust, noisy, brutal, solidly built for living, and living joyously these two weak, kindly creatures, out of their setting, so to speak, outside life, understood and pitied each other without ever saying anything about it. Jean-Christophe, with the cruel carelessness of childhood, shared the contempt of his father and grandfather for the little peddler.
He was always talking of God, for he was very pious, unlike the two Kraffts, father and son, who were free-thinkers, and took care to eat meat on Fridays. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Melchior changed his opinion.
He heard the buzzing of memory and of an unknown creature within himself; the blood boiled in his veins and roared: "Thus ... Thus .. Thus ..." The centuries whirled through him.... Many other Kraffts had passed through the experiences which were his on that day, and had tasted the wretchedness of the last hour on their native soil.
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