s and the teachers lift up their voices and
tell young men about these frightful dangers? He wanted to go out in
the highways and preach it himself--except that he dared not, because he
could not explain to the world his own sudden interest in this forbidden
topic.

These was only one person he dared to talk to: that was his mother--to
whom he ought to have talked many, many years before. He was moved to
mention to her the interview he had overheard in the doctor's office. In
a sudden burst of grief he told her of his struggles and temptations; he
pleaded with her to go to Henriette once more--to tell her these things,
and try to make her realize that he alone was not to blame for them,
that they were a condition which prevailed everywhere, that the only
difference between her husband and other men was that he had had the
misfortune to be caught.

There was pressure being applied to Henriette from several sides. After
all, what could she do? She was comfortable in her father's home, so far
as the physical side of things went; but she knew that all her friends
were gossiping and speculating about her separation from her husband,
and sooner or later she would have to make up her mind, either to
separate permanently from George or to return to him. There was not much
happiness for her in the thought of getting a divorce from a man whom
deep in her heart she loved. She would be practically a widow the rest
of her life, and the home in which poor little Gervaise would be brought
up would not be a cheerful one.

George was ready to offer any terms, if only she would come back to his
home. They might live separate lives for as long as Henriette wished.
They would have no more children until the doctor declared it was quite
safe; and in the meantime he would be humble and patient, and would try
his best to atone for the wrong that he had done her.

To these arguments Madame Dupont added others of her own. She told the
girl some things which through bitter experience she had learned about
the nature and habits of men; things that should be told to every girl
before marriage, but which almost all of them are left to find out
afterwards, with terrible suffering and disillusionment. Whatever
George's sins may have been, he was a man who had been chastened by
suffering, and would know how to value a woman's love for the rest of
his life. Not all men knew that--not even those who had been fortunate
in escaping from the so-called