And if I lived I would marry at once." Desperate as his condition was, the master-carpenter could almost have laughed at the idea of marriage preventing him from following the bent of his nature.

He was the born lover.

If he had been as high as the Czar, or as low as the ditcher, he would have been the same; but it would be madness to admit that to Jean Jacques now.
"But, as you say, let me get on.

My time has come--" Jean Jacques jerked his head angrily.

"Enough of this.