56 THE BIRTH OF PICCIOLA. 



been torn by alternate attraction and repulsion. 

 Is it then surprising that chance has sometimes hit 

 the mark ? This covering may protect the first 

 leaves, I grant it ; but will it increase, will it 

 shelter the other leaves against the cold and the 

 attacks of insects ? No. The next spring, when 

 another foliage will be born, fragile as this, will it 

 be here to protect that ? No. Nothing here has 

 been foreseen, nothing is the fruit of intelligent 

 thought, but only of a lucky chance." 



Ah, Count de Charney, nature holds more than 

 one answer to refute your arguments. Wait, and 

 see in this weak and solitary plant, brought to you 

 in the dulness of your prison, a beneficent thought 

 of Providence rather than a stroke of chance. 

 These excrescences, in which you yourself have 

 divined a lever and a shield, have already rendered 

 other services to this feeble plant. After having 

 served it through the winter as a covering in the 

 cold soil, when the right time arrived they lent it 

 their nourishing breasts, they fed the simple germ 

 when it had neither roots to draw the moisture 

 from the earth, nor leaves to breathe the air and 

 the sun. You are right, Count de Charney ; these 

 protecting wings which now cover the young plant 

 maternally will not develop with her ; they will 



