"She questioned him, and laughed at his theatrical slang, wrapped her
otter-skin rug round his legs, and murmured: 'Come close to me, darling;
at any rate, you are not cold, I hope?' When they reached her pretty
little house, with old tapestry and delicate colored plush hangings,
they found supper waiting for them, and she amused herself by attending
to him herself, with the manners of a saucy waitress... And then there
were kisses, constant, insatiable, maddening kisses, and the lad
exclaimed, with glistening eyes, at the thoughts of future meetings: 'If
you only knew how pretty she is! And then, it is nicer than anything
else in the world to obey her, to do whatever she wants, and to allow
oneself to be loved as she wishes!'

"_Mamma Stirling_ was very uneasy, but resigned himself to the
inevitable, and seeing how infatuated the boy was, he took care not to
be too sharp with him, or to keep too tight a hand upon the reins. The
woman who had debauched the lad was a fast woman, and nothing else, and
after all, the old stager preferred that to one of those excitable women
who are as dangerous for a man as the plague, whereas a girl of that
sort can be taken and left again, and one does not risk one's heart at
the same time as one does one's skin, for a man knows what they are
worth. He was mistaken, however. Nelly d'Argine, she is married to a
Yankee, now, and has gone to New York with him, was one of those vicious
women whom a man can only wish his worst enemy to have, and she had
merely taken a fancy to the young fellow because she was bored to
death, and because her senses were roused like the embers which break
out again, when a fire is nearly out.

"Unfortunately, he had taken the matter seriously, and was very jealous,
and as suspicious as a deer, and had never imagined that this love
affair could come to an end, and proud, with his hot gipsy blood, he
wished to be the only lover, the only master who paid, and who could not
be shown the door, like a troublesome and importunate parasite.

"Stirling had saved some money, by dint of a hard struggle, and had
invested it in the Funds against a rainy day, when he should be too old
to work, and to gain a livelihood, and when he saw how madly in love his
son was, and how obstinate in his lamentable folly, he gave him all his
savings and deprived himself of his stout and gin, so that the boy might
have money to give to his mistress, and might continue to be happy, and