of society and by Annette herself to calculate everything; already an

old man under the mask of youth. He had gone through the frightful

education of social life, of that world where in one evening more

crimes are committed in thought and speech than justice ever punishes

at the assizes; where jests and clever sayings assassinate the noblest

ideas; where no one is counted strong unless his mind sees clear: and

to see clear in that world is to believe in nothing, neither in

feelings, nor in men, nor even in events,--for events are falsified.