ery
roots. But I had loved her too dearly for me to become master of my
weakness so quickly.

"She spared me the temptation. In a few days her answer came; she
refrained from making any explanations, which she knew would never be
satisfactory to a person so inclined to be suspicious as I was. Great
God! I suspicious--I, whom a lie would have quieted again! She accepted
what I had proposed to her, intended to return to the stage--for which
she was undoubtedly born--thanked me for all the goodness I had shown
her, hoped all would go well with me, and much more--a letter well
written, friendly, and icy cold.

"Not a syllable was said about the child!"

CHAPTER II.

He had thrown himself down on a lounge that stood near the door, and
his head sank on his breast. For a long time he remained in this
position apparently forgetting where he was, and to whom he had been
telling his dreary, melancholy story.

The dog rose up, and, with a singularly wistful expression in his eyes,
went to the side of his master, who now roused himself with an effort,
and made as though he would take his departure.

But Julie did not change her position, nor look at him, but merely said
in her soft voice:

"What must you have suffered!" Then, after a moment's pause, she went
on: "And you have never seen her since?"

"No. I only waited until the child had recovered sufficiently to bear
the journey. Then I broke loose from all that held me there, and came
to this city. Here I might be a new man--or so I sometimes imagined
when I did not think of the past. Yes, the doctors are right--a change
of air will work wonders. Do you suppose it was in the slightest degree
hard for me to set up my 'saint-factory?' I merely did it so that I
might be safe from all dunning letters, and might send the stipulated
and very considerable sum, every quarter, to our intermediary in
Hamburg. In this way I freed myself from importunities, and consoled
myself with the thought that a man need not scruple as to how he earns
money that is going to pay for his own shame. A fortunate man, one who
lives openly and uprightly, has a right to give himself up to that
noblest of all luxuries, the luxury of sacrificing himself to his
convictions. If I had had a wife with a pure and noble soul, then it
would have been glorious to have accepted even poverty and want in
order to remain true to my ideals, and never to have moved a finger
exc