oppressed by the weight of his wealth, a something low and vulgar which
he had not previously remarked. Yes, he was indeed the adventurer
from the south, moulded of the slimy clay that covers the quays of
Marseilles, trodden down by all the nomads and wanderers of a seaport.
Kind, generous, forsooth! as harlots are, or thieves. And the gold,
flowing in torrents through that tainted and luxurious world, splashing
the very walls, seemed to him now to be loaded with all the dross, all
the filth of its impure and muddy source. There remained, then, for
him, de Gery, but one thing to do, to go away, to quit with all possible
speed this situation in which he risked the compromising of his good
name, the one heritage from his father. Doubtless. But the two little
brothers down yonder in the country. Who would pay for their board and
lodging? Who would keep up the modest home miraculously brought into
being once more by the handsome salary of the eldest son, the head of
the family? Those words, "head of the family," plunged him immediately
into one of those internal combats in which interest and conscience
struggled for the mastery--the one brutal, substantial, attacking
vigorously with straight thrusts, the other elusive, breaking away by
subtle disengagements--while the worthy Jansoulet, unconscious cause
of the conflict, walked with long strides close by his young friend,
inhaling the fresh air with delight at the end of his lighted cigar.

Never had he felt it such a happiness to be alive; and this evening
party at Jenkins's, which had been his own first real entry into society
as well as de Gery's, had left with him an impression of porticoes
erected as for a triumph, of an eagerly assembled crowd, of flowers
thrown on his path. So true is it that things only exist through the
eyes that observe them. What a success! the duke, as he took leave of
him inviting him to come to see his picture gallery, which meant the
doors of Mora House opened to him within a week. Felicia Ruys