"You know equally well that I have never wavered in my desire to see you follow the career which would have been mine if circumstances had not been stronger than my will."
As if this word had suddenly excited in him the strength to will, the eyes of M. Oberlé were fixed, imperious and masterful, on those of his son, like the claws of a bird of prey. He left off playing with his eyeglass, and said quickly:
"Your last letters indicated, however, a certain hesitation. Answer me. Will you become a magistrate?"
Jean became slightly pale, and answered:
"No!"
The father bent forward as if he were going to rise, and without taking his eyes off him whose moral energy he was weighing and judging at that moment:
"Administrator?"
"Neither. Nothing official."
"Then your law studies?"
"Useless."