l 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 an 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 domestic difficulties in families that had
got out of gear, at once foresaw the more immediate consequences of his
brother's state of mind. In spite of himself, he looked at the issue
from an almost professional point of view, as though he had to legislate
for the future relations of certain clients after a moral disaster.
Constant friction against Pierre had certainly become unendurable. He
could easily evade it, no doubt, by living in his own lodgings; but even
then it was not possible that their mother should live under the same
roof with her elder son. For a long time he sat meditating, motionless,
on the cushions, devising and rejecting various possibilities, and
finding nothing that satisfied him.

But suddenly an idea took him by storm. This fortune which had come to
him. Would an honest man keep it?

"No," was the first immediate answer, and he made up his mind that it
must go to the poor. It was hard, but it could not be helped. He would
sell his furniture and work like any other man, like any other beginner.
This manful and painful resolution spurred his courage; he rose and went
to the window, leaning his forehead against the pane. He had been poor;
he could become poor again. After all he should not die of it. His eyes
were fixed on the gas lamp burning at the opposite side of the street.
A woman, much belated, happened to pass; suddenly he thought of Mme.
Rosemilly with a pang at his heart, the shock of deep feeling which
comes of a cruel suggestion. All the dire results of his decision rose
up before him together. He would have to renounce his marriage, renounce
happiness, renounce everything. Could he do such a thing after having
pledge