a real passion which had no means of satisfaction except by marriage,
led Paul on to an irrational love, which he had, however, the good
sense to keep to himself. He even endeavored to study Mademoiselle
Evangelista as a man should who desires not to compromise his future
life; for the words of his friend de Marsay did sometimes rumble in
his ears like a warning. But, in the first place, persons accustomed
to luxury have a certain indifference to it which misleads them. They
despise it, they use it; it is an instrument, and not the object of
their existence. Paul never imagined, as he observed the habits of
life of the two ladies, that they covered a gulf of ruin. Then, though
there may exist some general rules to soften the asperities of
marriage, there are none by which they can be accurately foreseen and
evaded. When trouble arises between two persons who have undertaken to
render life agreeable and easy to each other, it comes from the
contact of continual intimacy, which, of course, does not exist
between young people before they marry, and will never exist so long
as our present social laws and customs prevail in France. All is more
or less deception between the two young persons about to take each
other for life,--an innocent and involuntary deception, it is true.
Each endeavors to appear in a favorable light; both take a tone and
attitude conveying a more favorable idea of their nature than they are
able to maintain in after years. Real life, like the weather, is made
up of gray and cloudy days alternating with those when the sun shines
and the fields are gay. Young people, however, exhibit fine weather
and no clouds. Later they attribute to marriage the evils inherent in
life itself; for there is in man a disposition to lay the blame of his
own misery on the persons and things that surround him.

To discover in the demeanor, or the countenance, or the words, or the
gestures of Mademoiselle Evangelista any indication that revealed the