Externally he became like all the other youths of his age.

He went to evening parties and learned to dance a quadrille and a polka.

On holidays he came home drunk, and always suffered greatly from the effects of liquor.

In the morning his head ached, he was tormented by heartburns, his face was pale and dull.
Once his mother asked him: "Well, did you have a good time yesterday ?" He answered dismally and with irritation: "Oh, dreary as a graveyard! Everybody is like a machine.

I'd better go fishing or buy myself a gun." He worked faithfully, without intermission and without incurring fines.
He was taciturn, and his eyes, blue and large like his mother's, looked out discontentedly.