"What have I ever done to thee, wretch ?" cried the old man,--"what but loved and cherished thee?
Thou wert an orphan,--an outcast.

I nurtured, nursed, adopted thee as my son.

If men call me a miser, it was but that none might despise thee, my heir, because Nature has stunted and deformed thee, when I was no more.

Thou wouldst have had all when I was dead.

Couldst thou not spare me a few months or days,--nothing to thy youth, all that is left to my age?
What have I done to thee ?" "Thou hast continued to live, and thou wouldst make no will." "Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" "TON DIEU! Thy God! Fool! Hast thou not told me, from my childhood, that there is NO God?
Hast thou not fed me on philosophy?
Hast thou not said, 'Be virtuous, be good, be just, for the sake of mankind: but there is no life after this life'?
Mankind! why should I love mankind?
Hideous and misshapen, mankind jeer at me as I pass the streets.