The blood in his veins now
became poison. He did the things that twenty should do, and left undone
the things that fifty should do. Ah! Harry, one of the saddest things
in life is the dissipated boy of fifty! He should have come with us when
the first blood of youth was upon him. He could have found time then for
play as well as work. He could have rowed with us in the slender boats
on the river and bayous with Mimi and Rosalie and Marianne and all those
other bright and happy ones. He could have danced, too. It was no
strain, we never danced longer than two days and two nights without
stopping, and the festivals, the gay fete days, not more than one a week!
But it was not Auguste's way. A man when he should have been a boy,
and then, alas! a boy when he should have been a man!"
"You speak true words, Hector," said Colonel Leonidas Talbot, "though at
times you seem to me to be rather sentimental. Youth is youth and it has
the pleasures of youth. It is not fitting that a man should be a boy,
but middle-age has pleasures of its own and they are more solid, perhaps
more satisfying than those of youth. I can't conceive of twenty getting
the pleasure out of the noble game of chess that we do. The most
brilliant of your young French Creole dancers never felt the thrill that
I feel when the last move is made and I beat you.
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