he same
time to keep out of trouble.

He did not find any happiness in the renunciation which he imposed
upon himself; he had no religious ideas about it. On the contrary,
he suffered keenly, and was bitter because he had no share in the
amusements of his friends. He stuck to his work and forced himself to
keep regular hours, preparing for his law examinations. But all the
time he was longing for adventures. And, of course, this could not go
on forever, for the motive of fear alone is not sufficient to subdue the
sexual urge in a full-blooded young man.

The affair with Lizette might have continued much longer had it not been
for the fact that his father died. He died quite suddenly, while George
was away on a trip. The son came back to console his broken-hearted
mother, and in the two week they spent in the country together the
mother broached a plan to him. The last wish of the dying man had
been that his son should be fixed in life. In the midst of his intense
suffering he had been able to think about the matter, and had named the
girl whom he wished George to marry. Naturally, George waited with some
interest to learn who this might be. He was surprised when his mother
told him that it was his cousin, Henriette Loches.

He could not keep his emotion from revealing itself in his face. "It
doesn't please you?" asked his mother, with a tone disappointment.

"Why no, mother," he answered. "It's not that. It just surprises me."

"But why?" asked the mother. "Henriette is a lovely girl and a good
girl."

"Yes, I know," said George; "but then she is my cousin, and--" He
blushed a little with embarrassment. "I had never thought of her in that
way."

Madame Dupont laid her hand upon her son's. "Yes, George," she said
tenderly. "I know. You are such a good boy."

Now, of course, George did not feel that he was quite such a good boy;
but his mother was a deeply religious woman, who had no idea of the
truth about the majority of men. She would never have got over the shock
if he had told her about himself, and so he had to pretend to be just
what she thought him.

"Tell me," she continued, after a pause, "have you never felt the least
bit in love?"

"Why no--I don't think so," George stammered, becoming conscious of a
sudden rise of temperature in his cheeks.

"Because," said his mother, "it is really time that you were settled in
life. Your father said that we should have seen to it before, and now it
is my duty