Then the doctor
went on to speak of the prolificness of wretchedness, the swarming of the
lower classes. Was not the most hateful natality of all that which meant
the endless increase of starvelings and social rebels?
"I perfectly understand you," Beauchene ended by saying, without any show
of anger, as he abruptly brought his perambulations to an end. "You want
to place me in contradiction with myself, and make me confess that I
accept Moineaud's seven children and need them, whereas I, with my fixed
determination to rest content with an only son, suppress, as it were, a
family in order that I may not have to subdivide my estate. France, 'the
country of only sons,' as folks say nowadays--that's it, eh? But, my dear
fellow, the question is so intricate, and at bottom I am altogether in
the right!"
Then he wished to explain things, and clapped his hand to his breast,
exclaiming that he was a liberal, a democrat, ready to demand all really
progressive measures. He willingly recognized that children were
necessary, that the army required soldiers, and the factories workmen.
Only he also invoked the prudential duties of the higher classes, and
reasoned after the fashion of a man of wealth, a conservative clinging to
the fortune he has acquired.
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