he marriage was the
fruit of the crime."

"This discussion is, in itself, a verdict. There are some things on
which a man does not deliberate," said my former guardian, who thought
to enlighten the assembly with a flash of inebriety.

"Yes!" said the secretary of an embassy.

"Yes!" said the priest.

But the two men did not mean the same thing.

A "doctrinaire," who had missed his election to the Chamber by one
hundred and fifty votes out of one hundred and fifty-five, here rose.

"Messieurs," he said, "this phenomenal incident of intellectual nature
is one of those which stand out vividly from the normal condition to
which sobriety is subjected. Consequently the decision to be made ought
to be the spontaneous act of our consciences, a sudden conception, a
prompt inward verdict, a fugitive shadow of our mental apprehension,
much like the flashes of sentiment which constitute taste. Let us vote."

"Let us vote!" cried all my guests.

I have each two balls, one white, one red. The white, symbol of
virginity, was to forbid the marriage; the red ball sanctioned it. I
myself abstained from voting, out of delicacy.

My friends were seventeen in number; nine was therefore the majority.
Each man put his ball into the wicker basket with a narrow throat, used
to hold the numbered balls when card-players draw for their places at
pool. We were all roused to a more or less keen curiosity; for this
balloting to clarify morality was certainly original. Inspection of the
ballot-box showed the presence of nine white balls! The result did not
surprise me; but it came into my heard to count the young men of my own
age whom I had brought to sit in judgment. These casuists were precisely
nine in number; they all had the same thought.

"Oh, oh!" I said to myself, "here is secret unanimity to forbid the
marriage, and secret unanimity to sanction it! How shall I solve that
problem?"

"Where does the father-in-law live?" asked one my school-friends,
heedlessly, being less sophisticated than the others.

"There's no longer a father-in-law," I replied. "Hitherto, my conscience
has spoken plainly enough to make your verdict superfluous. If to-day
its voice is weakened, here is the cause of my cowardice. I received,
about two months ago, this all-seducing letter."

And I showed them the following invitation, which I took from my
pocket-book:--

"You are invited to be present at the funeral procession, burial
services, and inte