"
"Thank you; no," said Lefevre. "I am well enough, only a little drowsy."
"I am stronger," said Julius, "but it will not last; so let me finish my
story."
Then he continued. "Having explained to myself, in the way I have told
you, the ease of my unwitting replenishment of force whenever I was
brought low, I set myself to improve on my discovery. I saw before me a
prospect of enjoyment of all the delights of life, deeper and more
constant than most men ever know,--if I could only ensure to myself with
absolute certainty a still more complete and rapid reinvigoration as
often soever as I sank into exhaustion. I was quite sure that no energy
of life is finer or fuller than the human at its best."
"Good God!" exclaimed Lefevre, turning away with an involuntary shudder.
"For heaven's sake!" cried Julius, "don't shrink from me now, or you
will tempt me to be less frank than I have been. I wish to make full
confession. I know, I see now, I have been cruelly, brutally selfish--as
selfish as Nature herself!--none knows that better than I. But remember,
in extenuation, what I have told you of my origin and my growth.
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