“And you love this creature?”
“Ah! monsieur, with all my heart!”
“Where and how did you make her acquaintance?”
Eusebe then related how his father had sent him to Paris to study life, admire civilization, and learn to distinguish the false from the true. His journey, his arrival, his illusions, his meeting with Adéonne, his mode of life since then, his grief, his humiliation,—all,—were told with perfect candor and simplicity.
“My son,” said M. de la Varade, “I know something of human nature, and I feel sure that you are sincere. Your affair here will not be followed up. Now it is no longer the judge who speaks: it is the man. Listen! Up to the present time you have not followed the injunctions of your father: you are on the wrong road. Are you not conscious that your present pleasures are entirely factitious and forced? Have you never thought of the hollowness of such fancied enjoyments? Are you not ashamed of being absolutely nothing in a society where each individual has a mission?”
“Yes, indeed,” exclaimed the young man. “I have experienced all the sensations you describe. But what can I do, powerless as I am to discover the true path, and with no counsellor to point the way?”
“The true is synonymous with one word, which is the religion of society: that word is Duty.”