intercessor whose task will bring him a sort of gladness; he purifies,
repairs and reconciles. But we lawyers, we see the same evil feelings
repeated again and again, nothing can correct them; our offices are
sewers which can never be cleansed.

"How many things have I learned in the exercise of my profession! I
have seen a father die in a garret, deserted by two daughters, to whom
he had given forty thousand francs a year! I have known wills burned;
I have seen mothers robbing their children, wives killing their
husbands, and working on the love they could inspire to make the men
idiotic or mad, that they might live in peace with a lover. I have
seen women teaching the child of their marriage such tastes as must
bring it to the grave in order to benefit the child of an illicit
affection. I could not tell you all I have seen, for I have seen
crimes against which justice is impotent. In short, all the horrors
that romancers suppose they have invented are still below the truth.
You will know something of these pretty things; as for me, I am going
to live in the country with my wife. I have a horror of Paris."

"I have seen plenty of them already in Desroches' office," replied
Godeschal.



PARIS, February-March 1832.




ADDENDUM