tion gave him, and quietly become benumbed.

The awakening had come; with his eyes open he saw the abyss to the edge
of which his stupidity had brought him.

How strong would he not be if during the last three months he had not
had this long hair and beard, which was most terrible testimony against
him? Instead of taking refuge in miserable makeshifts when Phillis and
Nougarede asked him to see Madame Dammauville, he would have boldly held
his own, and have gone to see her as they wished. In that case he would
be saved, and soon Florentin would be also.

And he believed himself intelligent! And he proudly imagined he could
arrange things beforehand so well that he would never be surprised! What
he should have foreseen would come to pass, nothing more; the lesson
that experience taught him was hard, and this was not the first one;
the evening of Caffie's death he saw very clearly that a new situation
opened before him, which to the end of his life would make him the
prisoner of his crime. To tell the truth, however, this impression
became faint soon enough; but now it was stronger than ever, and to a
certainty, never to be dismissed again.

But it was useless to look behind; it was the present and the future
that he must measure with a clear and firm glance, if he did not wish to
be lost.

After carefully examining and weighing the question, he decided to have
his hair and beard cut. However adventurous this resolution was, however
embarrassing it might become in provoking curiosity and questions, it
was the only way of escaping a possible recognition.

Mechanically, by habit, he bent his steps toward the Rue
Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, where his barber lived, but he had taken only
a few steps when reflection caused him to stop; it would be certainly
a mistake to provoke the gossip of this man who, knew him, and who, for
the pleasure of talking, would tell every one in the quarter that he had
just cut the hair and beard of Dr. Saniel. He returned to the boulevard,
where he was not known.

But as he was about to open the door of the shop which he decided to
enter, he changed his mind. He happened to find the explanation that he
must give Phillis, and as he wished to avoid the surprise that she would
not fail to show if she saw him suddenly without hair and beard, he
would give this explanation before having them cut, in such a way that
all at once and without looking for another reason, she would understand
that this