It was as if the nobility of the facade had, in some degree, ceased to hide the irreparable dilapidation within.
And given his real good nature, it must be true that he suffered--suffered by reason of his useless, wasted life, by reason of all the money he cost his impoverished mother, and of the needs that were at last driving him to marry that wealthy deformed girl, whom at first he had simply pitied.

And so weak did he seem to Eve, so like a piece of wreckage tossed hither and thither by a tempest, that, at the risk of being overheard by the throng, she let her heart flow forth in a low but ardent, entreating murmur: "If you suffer, ah! what sufferings are mine!--Gerard, we must see one another, I will have it so." "No, I beg you, let us wait," he stammered in embarrassment.
"It must be, Gerard; Camille has told me your plans.

You cannot refuse to see me.

I insist on it." He made yet another attempt to escape the cruel explanation.

"But it's impossible at the usual place," he answered, quivering.