"All that is not serious, you know, and here is what I am come to tell
you. An opportunity presents itself to you, a double-swing door opening
into the future. The Bethlehem Society is founded. The most splendid of
my philanthropic dreams has taken body. We have just purchased a superb
villa at Nanterre for the housing of our first establishment. It is the
care, the management of this house that I have thought of intrusting
to you as to an _alter ego_. A princely dwelling, the salary of the
commander of a division, and the satisfaction of a service rendered to
the great human family. Say one word, and I take you to see the Nabob,
the great-hearted man who defrays the expense of our undertaking. Do you
accept?"

"No," said the other so curtly that Jenkins was somewhat put out of
countenance.

"Just so. I was prepared for this refusal when I came here. But I am
come nevertheless. I have taken for motto, 'To do good without hope,'
and I remain faithful to my motto. So then, it is understood you prefer
to the honourable, worthy, and profitable existence which I have just
proposed to you, a life of hazard without aim and without dignity?"

Andre answered nothing, but his silence spoke for him.

"Take care. You know what that decision will involve, a definitive
estrangement, but you have always wanted that. I need not tell you,"
continued Jenkins, "that to break with me is to break off relations also
with your mother. She and I are one."

The young man turned pale, hesitated a moment, then said with effort: