This moment decided his whole future. Sometimes a man feels a sudden, unaccountable impulse to smother in himself all human love and sympathy. In the presence of this unhappy man, so unworthily treated, so broken- spirited, so confiding, Camors--if there be any truth in old spiritual laws--should have seen himself guilty of an atrocious act, which should have condemned him to a remorse almost unbearable. But if it were true that the human herd was but the product of material forces in nature, producing, haphazard, strong beings and weak ones-- lambs and lions--he had played only the lion's part in destroying his companion. He said to himself, with his father's letter beneath his eyes, that this was the fact; and the reflection calmed him. The more he thought, that day and the next, in depth of the retreat in which he had buried himself, the more was he persuaded that this doctrine was that very truth which he had sought, and which his father had bequeathed to him as the whole rule of his life. His cold and barren heart opened with a voluptuous pleasure under this new flame that filled and warmed it. From this moment he possessed a faith--a principle of action--a plan of life--all that he needed; and was no longer oppressed by doubts, agitation, and remorse. This doctrine, if not the most elevated, was at least above the level of the most of mankind. It satisfied his pride and justified his scorn. To preserve his self-esteem, it was only necessary for him to preserve his honor, to do nothing low, as his father had said; and he determined never to do anything which, in his eyes, partook of that character. Moreover, were there not men he himself had met thoroughly steeped in materialism, who were yet regarded as the most honorable men of their day? Perhaps he might have asked himself whether this incontestable fact might not, in part, have been attributed rather to the individual than to the doctrine; and whether men's beliefs did not always influence their actions. However that might have been, from the date of this crisis Louis de Camors made his father's will the rule of his life. To develop in all their strength the physical and intellectual gifts which he possessed; to make of himself the polished type of the civilization of the times; to charm women and control men; to revel in all the joys of intellect, of the senses, and of rank; to subdue as servile instincts all natural sentiments; to scorn, as chimeras and hypocrisies, all vulgar beliefs; to love nothing, fear nothing, respect nothing, save honor--such, in fine, were the duties which he recognized, and the rights which he arrogated to himself. It was with these redoubtable weapons, and strengthened by a keen intelligence and vigorous will, that he would return to the world--his brow calm and grave, his eye caressing while unyielding, a smile upon his lips, as men had known him.