The poor boy could not tell anybody that he suspected his father of a secret vice, that he blushed over it, was ashamed of it, and suffered from it as much as youth can suffer.

At least, honest-hearted fellow that he was, he avowed his humble origin without shame, boasted of his humble friends the Gerards, praised Louise's goodness, and spoke enthusiastically of little Maria, who was just sixteen and so pretty.
"You will take me to see them some time, will you not ?" said Maurice, who listened to his friend with his natural good grace.

"But first of all, you must come to dinner some day with me, and I will present you to my mother.

Next Sunday, for instance.

Is it agreeable ?" Amedee would have liked to refuse, for he suddenly recalled--oh! the torture and suffering of poor young men! that his Sunday coat was almost as seedy as his everyday one, that his best pair of shoes were run-over at the heels, and that the collars and cuffs on his six white shirts were ragged on the edges from too frequent washings.