she could walk and she took his arm. The town hall clock struck three
as they went past.

Outside their own door Jean kissed her, saying:

"Good-night, mother, keep up your courage."

She stealthily crept up the silent stairs, and into her room,
undressed quickly, and slipped into bed with a long-forgotten sense of
guilt. Roland was snoring. In all the house Pierre alone was awake,
and had heard her come in.

CHAPTER VIII

When he got back to his lodgings Jean dropped on a sofa; for the
sorrows and anxieties which made his brother long to be moving, and to
flee like a hunted prey, acted differently on his torpid nature and
broke the strength of his arms and legs. He felt too limp to stir a
finger, even to get to bed; limp body and soul, crushed and
heart-broken. He had not been hit, as Pierre had been, in the purity
of filial love, in the secret dignity which is the refuge of a proud
heart; he was overwhelmed by the stroke of fate which, at the same
time threatened his own nearest interests.

When at last his spirit was calmer, when his thoughts had settled like
water that has been stirred and lashed, he could contemplate the
situation which had come before him. If he had learned the secret of
his birth through any other channel he would assuredly have been very
wroth and very deeply pained, but after his quarrel with his brother,
after the violent and brutal betrayal which had shaken his nerves, the
agonizing emotion of his mother's confession had so bereft him of
energy that he could not rebel. The shock to his feelings had been so
great as to sweep away in an irresistible tide of pathos, all
prejudice, and all the sacred delicacy of natural morality. Besides,
he was not a man made for resistance. He did not like contending
against any one, least of all against himself, so he resigned himself
at once; and by instinctive tendency, a congenital love of peace, and
of easy and tranquil life, he began to anticipate the agitations which
must surge up around him and at once be his ruin. He foresaw that
they were inevitable, and to avert them he made up his mind to
superhuman efforts of energy and activity. The knot must be cut
immediately, this very day; for even he had fits of that imperious
demand for a swift solution which is the only strength of weak
natures, incapable of a prolonged effort of will. His lawyer's mind,
accustomed as it was to disentangling and studying complicated
situations and questions of do