valancourt, mean while, was returned to estuviere, his heart occupied with the image of emily; sometimes indulging in reveries of future happiness, but more frequently shrinking with dread of the opposition he might encounter from her family.he was the younger son of an ancient family of gascony; and, having lost his parents at an early period of his life, the care of his education and of his small portion had devolved to his brother, the count de duvarney, his senior by nearly twenty years.valancourt had been educated in all the accomplishments of his age, and had an ardour of spirit, and a certain grandeur of mind, that gave him particular excellence in the exercises then thought heroic.his little fortune had been diminished by the necessary expences of his education; but m.la valancourt, the elder, seemed to think that his genius and accomplishments would amply supply the deficiency of his inheritance.
they offered flattering hopes of promotion in the military profession, in those times almost the only one in which a gentleman could engage without incurring a stain on his name; and la valancourt was of course enrolled in the army.the general genius of his mind was but little understood by his brother.that ardour for whatever is great and good in the moral world, as well as in the natural one, displayed itself in his infant years; and the strong indignation, which he felt and expressed at a criminal, or a mean action, sometimes drew upon him the displeasure of his tutor; who reprobated it under the general term of violence of temper; and who, when haranguing on the virtues of mildness and moderation, seemed to forget the gentleness and compassion, which always appeared in his pupil towards objects of misfortune.