m near her, and partly to
put him in the way of finding an equable, tranquil happiness which might
satisfy a soul like his. She had ended by judging Godefroid, finding him
at twenty-eight with two-thirds of his fortune gone, his desires dulled,
his pretended capacities extinct, his activity dead, his ambition
humbled, and his hatred against all that reached legitimate success
increased by his own shortcomings.

She tried to marry him to an excellent young girl, the only daughter of
a retired merchant,--a woman well fitted to play the part of guardian
to the sickened soul of her son. But the father had the business
spirit which never abandons an old merchant, especially in matrimonial
negotiations, and after a year of attentions and neighborly intercourse,
Godefroid was not accepted. In the first place, his former career seemed
to these worthy people profoundly immoral; then, during this very year,
he had made still further inroads into his capital, as much to dazzle
the parents as to please the daughter. This vanity, excusable as it
was, caused his final rejection by the family, who held dissipation
of property in holy horror, and who now discovered that in six years
Godefroid had spent or lost a hundred and fifty thousand francs of his
capital.

This blow struck the young man's already wounded heart the more deeply
because the girl herself had no personal beauty. But, guided by his
mother in judging her character, he had ended by recognizing in the
woman he sought the great value of an earnest soul, and the vast
advantages of a sound mind. He had grown accustomed to the face; he had
studied the countenance; he loved the voice, the manners, the glance of
that young girl. Having cast on this attachment the last stake of his
life, the disappointment he endured was the bitterest of all. His mother
died, and he found himself, he who had always desired luxury, with five
thousand francs a year for his whole fortune, and with the certainty
that never in his future life could he repair any loss whatsoever;
for he felt himself incapable of the effort expressed in that terrible
injunction, to _make his way_.

Weak, impatient grief cannot easily be shaken off. During his mourning,
Godefroid tried the various chances and distractions of Paris; he dined
at table-d'hotes; he made acquaintances heedlessly; he sought society,
with no result but that of increasing his expenditures. Walking along
the boulevards, he often suffered deep