"And I do not take that back. I do not blame you. But between the desire to cause one's opinion to prevail by peaceful means, and schemes to bring about its triumph by violence, by the force of arms—between the two there yawns a deep abyss. Not true, Monsieur George?"
"Yes, monsieur," answered the young man, looking at the linendraper with surprise mingled with uneasiness.
"Now, then, never is an armed demonstration attempted single-handed. Is not that also true, Monsieur George?"
"Monsieur," the young man answered with a feeling of increasing uneasiness, "I do not know—"
"Yes, you are bound to know that people ordinarily associate with others of their own opinion. In short, people affiliate in secret societies—and, on the day of battle, turn up boldly upon the street. Is that not true, Monsieur George?"
"I know, monsieur, that the revolution of 1830 was accomplished in that manner," answered George in a high state of anxiety, while his heart felt more and more wrung with pain.
"Certainly," resumed Monsieur Lebrenn, "certainly it was done in that way, and others before it; and still others in the future will take the same course. Nevertheless, as with revolutions, insurrections do not always succeed. Seeing that people who play at that game stake their heads, you will realize, Monsieur George, that my wife and I would be rather disinclined to give our daughter to a man who did not belong to himself; who, at any moment, might take up arms, and march with the secret society that he is a member of at the risk of his life, as behooves a man of honor and conviction. It is all very lofty, very heroic, I admit. The inconvenience lies in that the Chamber of Peers, failing to appreciate that sort of heroism, may send the conspirators to Mt. St. Michel, unless it order their heads cut off. Now, then, I put the question to you as a matter of conscience, Monsieur George, would it not be a sad thing for a young woman to be exposed at any time to see her husband without a head, or consigned to imprisonment for life?"
George, grief-stricken and in consternation, had turned pale. He answered Lebrenn in a depressed voice:
"Monsieur—two words—"
"Allow me, I shall be done in a second," interposed the linendraper; and he proceeded in a grave, almost solemn voice: