falls to the lot of every other; even Gondrin has not missed that."

Genestas held out his hand, a sudden impulsivemovement by which
Benassis was deeply touched.

"There is La Fosseuse," he went on in a different voice; "she perhaps
would have understood as the angels might; but then, too, she might

possibly have loved me, and that would have been a misfortune. Listen,
captain, my confession could only be made to an old soldier who looks

as leniently as you do on the failings of others, or to some young man
who has not lost the illusions of youth; for only a man who knows life

well, or a lad to whom it is all unknown, could understand my story.
The captains of past times who fell upon the field of battle used to

make their last confession to the cross on the hilt of their sword; if
there was no priest at hand, it was the sword that received and kept

the last confidences between a human soul and God. And will you hear
and understand me, for you are one of Napoleon's finest sword-blades,

as thoroughly tempered and as strong as steel? Some parts of my story
can only be understood by a delicatetenderness, and through a

sympathy with the beliefs that dwell in simple hearts; beliefs which
would seem absurd to the sophisticated people who make use in their

own lives of the prudential maxims of worldlywisdom that only apply
to the government of states. To you I shall speak openly and without

reserve, as a man who does not seek to apologize for his life with the
good and evil done in the course of it; as one who will hide nothing

from you, because he lives so far from the world of to-day, careless
of the judgements of man, and full of hope in God."

Benassis stopped, rose to his feet, and said, "Before I begin my
story, I will order tea. Jacquotte has never missed asking me if I

will take it for these twelve years past, and she will certainly
interrupt us. Do you care about it, captain?"

"No, thank you."
In another moment Benassis returned.

CHAPTER IV
THE COUNTRY DOCTOR'S CONFESSION

"I was born in a little town in Languedoc," the doctor resumed. "My
father had been settled there for many years, and there my early

childhood was spent. When I was eight years old I was sent to the
school of the Oratorians at Sorreze, and only left it to finish my

studies in Paris. My father had squandered his patrimony in the course
of an exceedingly wild and extravagant youth. He had retrieved his

position partly by a fortunate marriage, partly by the slow persistent
thrift characteristic of provincial life; for in the provinces people

pride themselves on accumulating rather than on spending, and all the
ambition in a man's nature is either extinguished or directed to

money-getting, for want of any nobler end. So he had grown rich at
last, and thought to transmit to his only son all the cut-and-dried

experience which he himself had purchased at the price of his lost
illusions; a noble last illusion of age which fondly seeks to bequeath

its virtues and its wary prudence to heedless youth, intent only on
the enjoyment of the enchanted life that lies before it.

"This foresight on my father's part led him to make plans for my
education for which I had to suffer. He sedulously concealed my

expectations of wealth from me, and during the fairest years of my
youth compelled me, for my own good, to endure the burden of anxiety

and hardship that presses upon a young man who has his own way to make
in the world. His idea in so doing was to instill the virtues of

poverty into me--patience, a thirst for learning, and a love of work
for its own sake. He hoped to teach me to set a proper value on my

inheritance, by letting me learn, in this way, all that it costs to
make a fortune; wherefore, as soon as I was old enough to understand

his advice, he urged me to choose a profession and to work steadily at
it. My tastes inclined me to the study of medicine.

"So I left Sorreze, after ten years of almost monastic discipline of
the Oratorians; and, fresh from the quiet life of a remoteprovincial

school, I was taken straight to the capital. My father went with me in
order to introduce me to the notice of a friend of his; and (all

unknown to me) my two elders took the most elaborate precautions
against any ebullitions of youth on my part, innocent lad though I

was. My allowance was rigidly computed on a scale based upon the
absolute necessaries of life, and I was obliged to produce my

certificate of attendance at the Ecole de Medecine before I was
allowed to draw my quarter's income. The excuse for this sufficiently

humiliating distrust was the necessity of my acquiring methodical and
business-like habits. My father, however, was not sparing of money for

all the necessary expenses of my education and for the amusements of
Parisian life.

"His old friend was delighted to have a young man to guide through the
labyrinth into which I had entered. He was one of those men whose

natures lead them to docket their thoughts, feelings, and opinions
every whit as carefully as their papers. He would turn up last year's

memorandum book, and could tell in a moment what he had been doing a
twelvemonth since in this very month, day, and hour of the present

year. Life, for him, was a business enterprise, and he kept the books
after the most approved business methods. There was real worth in him

though he might be punctilious, shrewd, and suspicious, and though he
never lacked specious excuses for the precautionary measures that he

took with regard to me. He used to buy all my books; he paid for my
lessons; and once, when the fancy took me to learn to ride, the good

soul himself found me out a riding-school, went thither with me, and
anticipated my wishes by putting a horse at my disposalwhenever I had

a holiday. In spite of all this cautiousstrategy, which I managed to
defeat as soon as I had any temptation to do so, the kind old man was

a second father to me.
" 'My friend,' he said, as soon as he surmised that I should break

away altogether from my leading strings, unless he relaxed them,
'young folk are apt to commit follies which draw down the wrath of

their elders upon their heads, and you may happen to want money at
some time or other; if so, come to me. Your father helped me nobly

once upon a time, and I shall always have a few crowns to spare for
you; but never tell any lies, and do not be ashamed to own to your

faults. I myself was young once; we shall always get on well together,
like two good comrades.'

"My father found lodgings for me with some quiet, middle-class people
in the Latin Quarter, and my room was furnished nicely enough; but

this first taste of independence, my father's kindness, and the self-
denial which he seemed to be exercising for me, brought me but little

happiness. Perhaps the value of liberty cannot be known until it has
been experienced; and the memories of the freedom of my childhood had

been almost effaced by the irksome and dreary life at school, from
which my spirits had scarcely recovered. In addition to this, my

father had urged new tasks upon me, so that altogether Paris was an
enigma. You must acquire some knowledge of its pleasures before you

can amuse yourself in Paris.
"My real position, therefore, was quite unchanged, save that my new

lycee was a much larger building, and was called the Ecole de
Medecine. Nevertheless, I studied away bravely at first; I attended

lectures diligently; I worked desperately hard and without relaxation,
so strongly was my imaginationaffected by the abundant treasures of

knowledge to be gained in the capital. But very soon I heedlessly made
acquaintances; danger lurks hidden beneath the rash confiding

friendships that have so strong a charm for youth, and gradually I was
drawn into the dissipated life of the capital. I became an

enthusiastic lover of the theatre; and with my craze for actors and
the play, the work of my demoralization began. The stage, in a great

metropolis, exerts a very deadly influence over the young; they never
quit the theatre save in a state of emotionalexcitement almost always

beyond their power to control; society and the law seem to me to be
accessories to the irregularities brought about in this way. Our

legislation has shut its eyes, so to speak, to the passions that
torment a young man between twenty and five-and-twenty years of age.

In Paris he is assailed by temptations of every kind. Religion may
preach and Law may demand that he should walk uprightly, but all his

surroundings and the tone of those about him are so many incitements
to evil. Do not the best of men and the most devout women there look

upon continence as ridiculous? The great city, in fact, seems to have
set herself to give encouragement to vice and to this alone; for a

young man finds that the entrance to every honorable career in which
he might look for success is barred by hindrances even more numerous

than the snares that are continually set for him, so that through his
weaknesses he may be robbed of his money.

"For a long while I went every evening to some theatre, and little by
little I fell into idle ways. I grew more and more slack over my work;