hrough a sympathy with
the beliefs that dwell in simple hearts; beliefs which would seem absurd
to the sophisticated people who make use in their own lives of the
prudential maxims of worldly wisdom that only apply to the government
of states. To you I shall speak openly and without reserve, as a man who
does not seek to apologize for his life with the good and evil done
in the course of it; as one who will hide nothing from you, because he
lives so far from the world of to-day, careless of the judgements of
man, and full of hope in God."

Benassis stopped, rose to his feet, and said, "Before I begin my story,
I will order tea. Jacquotte has never missed asking me if I will take it
for these twelve years past, and she will certainly interrupt us. Do you
care about it, captain?"

"No, thank you."

In another moment Benassis returned.

CHAPTER IV. THE COUNTRY DOCTOR'S CONFESSION

"I was born in a little town in Languedoc," the doctor resumed. "My
father had been settled there for many years, and there my early
childhood was spent. When I was eight years old I was sent to the school
of the Oratorians at Sorreze, and only left it to finish my studies
in Paris. My father had squandered his patrimony in the course of an
exceedingly wild and extravagant youth. He had retrieved his position
partly by a fortunate marriage, partly by the slow persistent thrift
characteristic of provincial life; for in the provinces people pride
themselves on accumulating rather than on spending, and all the ambition
in a man's nature is either extinguished or directed to money-getting,
for want of any nobler end. So he had grown rich at last, and thought
to transmit to his only son all the cut-and-dried experience which he
himself had purchased at the price of his lost illusions; a noble last
illusion of age which fondly seeks to bequeath its virtues and its
wary prudence to heedless youth, intent only on the enjoyment of the
enchanted life that lies before it.

"This foresight on my father's part led him to make plans for my
education for which I had to suffer. He sedulously concealed my
expectations of wealth from me, and during the fairest years of my
youth compelled me, for my own good, to endure the burden of anxiety and
hardship that presses upon a young man who has his own way to make in
the world. His idea in so doing was to instill the virtues of poverty
into me--patience, a thirst for learning, and a love of work for its