, etc.
"On the part of, etc."
"Now, what am I do to?" I continued; "I will put the question before
you in a broad way. There is undoubtedly a sea of blood in
Mademoiselle Taillefer's estates; her inheritance from her father is a
vast Aceldama. I know that. _But_ Prosper Magnan left no heirs; _but_,
again, I have been unable to discover the family of the merchant who
was murdered at Andernach. To whom therefore can I restore that
fortune? And ought it to be wholly restored? Have I the right to
betray a secret surprised by me,--to add a murdered head to the dowry
of an innocent girl, to give her for the rest of her life bad dreams,
to deprive her of all her illusions, and say, 'Your gold is stained
with blood'? I have borrowed the 'Dictionary of Cases of Conscience'
from an old ecclesiastic, but I can find nothing there to solve my
doubts. Shall I found pious masses for the repose of the souls of
Prosper Magnan, Wahlenfer, and Taillefer? Here we are in the middle of
the nineteenth century! Shall I build a hospital, or institute a prize
for virtue? A prize for virtue would be given to scoundrels; and as
for hospitals, they seem to me to have become in these days the
protectors of vice. Besides, such charitable actions, more or less
profitable to vanity, do they constitute reparation?--and to whom do I
owe reparation? But I love; I love passionately.
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