I want to cure and save you." Tears again rose to Pierre's eyes, and in a tone of infinite distress he answered: "Don't compel me to promise....

All I can say is that I will try to conquer myself." The week he then spent in his little, dark, empty home proved a terrible one.

Shutting himself up he brooded over his despair at having lost the companionship of that elder brother whom he once more loved with his whole soul.

He had never before been so keenly conscious of his solitude; and he was a score of times on the point of hastening to Montmartre, for he vaguely felt that affection, truth and life were there.

But on each occasion he was held back by a return of the discomfort which he had already experienced, discomfort compounded of shame and fear.