o him.

Valentine, however, had stopped short, gazing at him fixedly. Since
their household had been wrecked and they had been leading lives apart,
she no longer tolerated his sudden attacks of insane brutality and
jealousy. By reason also of the squandering of their fortune she had a
hold on him, for he feared that she might ask for certain accounts to be
rendered her.

"Yes," he granted, "there is Andree; but then girls don't count."

They were walking on again when Beauchene, who had hitherto contented
himself with puffing and chewing his cigar, for reserve was imposed upon
him by the frightful drama of his own family life, was unable to
remain silent any longer. Forgetful, relapsing into the extraordinary
unconsciousness which always set him erect, like a victorious superior
man, he spoke out loudly and boldly:

"I don't belong to Seguin's school, but, all the same, he says some true
things. That population question greatly interests me even now, and
I can flatter myself that I know it fully. Well, it is evident that
Malthus was right. It is not allowable for people to have families
without knowing how they will be able to nourish them. If the poor die
of starvation it is their fault, and not ours."

Then he reverted to his usual lecture on the subject. The governing
classes alone were reasonable in keeping to small families. A country
could only produce a certain supply of food, and was therefore
restricted to a certain population. People talked of the faulty division
of wealth; but it was madness to dream of an Utopia, where there would
be no more masters but only so many brothers, equal workers and sharers,
who would apportion happiness among themselves like a birthday-cake.
All the evil then came from the lack of foresight among the poor,
though with brutal frankness he admitted that employers readily availed
themselves of the circumstance that there was a surplus of children to
hire labor at reduced rates.

Then, losing all recollection of the past, infatuated, intoxicated with
his own ideas, he went on talking of himself. "People pretend that we
are not patriots because we don't leave troops of children behind us.
But that is simply ridiculous; each serves the country in his own way.
If the poor folks give it soldiers, we give it our capital--all the
proceeds of our commerce and industry. A fine lot of good would it do
the country if we were to ruin ourselves with big families, which would
hamper us, pr