vilify, calumniate, and abuse all whom they believe to be
blameless? Whenever a woman who is above imputation is mentioned in
their presence, they are as angry as if they were being insulted, and
exclaim: "Ah, yes, I know your married women; a pretty sort they are!
Why, they have more lovers than we have, only they conceal it because
they are such hypocrites. Oh, yes, a pretty sort, indeed!"

Under any other circumstances he would certainly not have understood,
not have imagined the possibility of such an insinuation against his
poor mother, who was so kind, so simple, so excellent. But his spirit
seethed with the leaven of jealousy that was fermenting within him.
His own excited mind, on the scent, as it were, in spite of himself,
for all that could damage his brother, had even perhaps attributed to
the tavern barmaid an odious intention of which she was innocent. It
was possible that his imagination had, unaided, invented this dreadful
doubt--his imagination, which he never controlled, which constantly
evaded his will and went off, unfettered, audacious, adventurous, and
stealthy, into the infinite world of ideas, bringing back now and then
some which were shameless and repulsive, and which it buried in him,
in the depths of his soul, in its most fathomless recesses, like
something stolen. His heart, most certainly, his own heart had secrets
from him; and had not that wounded heart discerned in this atrocious
doubt a means of depriving his brother of the inheritance of which he
was jealous? He suspected himself now, cross-examining all the
mysteries of his mind as bigots search their consciences.

Mme. Rosemilly, though her intelligence was limited, had certainly a
woman's instinct, scent, and subtle intuitions. And this notion had
never entered her head, since she had, with perfect simplicity, drunk
the blessed memory of the deceased Marechal. She was not the woman to
have done this if she had had the faintest suspicion. Now he doubted
no longer; his involuntary displeasure at his brother's windfall of
fortune and his religious affection for his mother had magnified his
scruples--very pious and respectable scruples, but exaggerated. As he
put this conclusion into words in his own mind he felt happy, as at
the doing of a good action; and he resolved to be nice to every one
beginning with his father, whose manias, and silly statements, and
vulgar opinions, and too conspicuous mediocrity were a constant
irritation to