so, I tell you; and no will, no amount of energy, can do any thing with
it. There are people who tell you soberly that they have been in love
without losing their senses, and reproach you for not keeping cool.
Bosh! Those people remind me of still champagne blaming sparkling
champagne for popping off the cork. And now, my dear fellow, have the
kindness to accept this cigar, and let us take a walk."

Was that really so as Brevan said? Was it true that real love destroys
in us the faculty of reasoning, and of distinguishing truth from
falsehood? Did he really not love Henrietta truly, because he was on the
point of giving her up for the sake of doing his duty?

Oh, no, no! Brevan had been speaking of another kind of love,--a love
neither pure nor chaste. He spoke of those passions which suddenly
strike us down like lightning; which confound our senses, and mislead
our judgment; which destroy every thing, as fire does, and leave nothing
behind but disaster and disgrace and remorse.

But all the more painful became Daniel's thoughts as he remembered that
Count Ville-Handry was overcome by one of these terrible passions for a
worthless creature. He could not accept Maxime's offer.

"One word, I pray you," he said. "Suppose I lose my free will, and
surrender absolutely; what will become of me?"

Brevan looked at him with an air of pity, and said,--

"Not much will happen to you; only"--

And then he added with almost sternness, mixed with bitter sarcasm,--

"You ask me for your horoscope? Be it so. Have you a large fortune?"

"About fifty thousand dollars."

"Well, in six months they will be gone; in a year you will be
overwhelmed with debts, and at your wits' end; in less than a year and a
half, you will have become a forger."

"Maxime!"

"Ah! You asked me to tell you the truth. Then, as to your social
position. Now it is excellent; you have been promoted as rapidly as
merit could claim, everybody says. You will be an admiral one of these
days. But in six months you will be nothing at all; you will have
resigned your commission, or you will have been dismissed."

"Allow me"--

"No. You are an honest man, the most honorable man I know; after six
months' acquaintance with Sarah Brandon, you will have lost your self-
respect so completely, that you will have become a drunkard. There is
your picture. 'It's not flattered!' you will say. But you wanted to have
it. And now let us go."

This time he was determine