"How?"

"I told him that the man who takes the first step in a revolution, and
persuades others to go along with him, cannot in safety stand still or
retreat when the next step is to be taken. It is 'en avant' or 'a la
lanterne.' So it shall be with him. Shall a fellow-being avail himself
of the power over my mind which he derives from superior education or
experience,--break into wild fragments my life, heretofore tranquil,
orderly, happy,--make use of my opinions, which were then but harmless
desires, to serve his own purpose, which was hostile to the opinions he
roused into action,--say to me, 'Give yourself up to destroy the first
obstacle in the way of securing a form of society which your inclinations
prefer,' and then, that first obstacle destroyed, cry, 'Halt! I go with
you no further; I will not help you to piece together the life I have
induced you to shatter; I will not aid you to substitute for the society
that pained you the society that would please; I leave you, struggling,
bewildered, maddened, in the midst of chaos within and without you'?
Shall a fellow-being do this, and vanish with a mocking cry: 'Tool! I
have had enough of thee; I cast thee aside as worthless lumber'? Ah!
let him beware! The tool is of iron, and can be shaped to edge and
point." The passion with which this rough eloquence was uttered, and the
fierce sinister expression that had come over a countenance habitually
open and manly, even when grave and stern, alarmed and startled Le Noy.
"Pooh, my friend!" he said, rather falteringly, "you are too excited now
to think justly. Go home and kiss your children. Never do anything that
may make them shrink from their father. And as to Lebeau, try and forget
him. He says he shall disappear from Paris. I believe him. It is clear
to me that the man is not what he seemed to us. No man of sixty could by
so easy a sleight of hand have brought that giant Pole to his knee. If
Lebeau reappear it will be in some other form. Did you notice that in