called to her.
"She gave a whimper of fright. With a bound I was
beside the bed; she tried to elude me, but I seized her by
the throat-like this, do you see?-tight! She struggled, she
began to cry out for mercy, but I held her fast, forcing
back her head and staring down into her face. She was
twenty years old, perhaps; her face was the
broad, dull face of a stupid child, but it was coated
with paint and powder, and her blue, stupid eyes,
shining in the red light, wore that shocked, distorted
look that one sees nowhere save in the eyes of these
women. She was some peasant girl, doubtless, whom
her parents had sold into slavery.
"Without another word I pulled her off the bed and
threw her on to the floor. And then I fell upon her like
a tiger! Ah, the joy, the incomparable rapture of that
time! There,
messieurs et dames, is what I would expound to
you;
voilà (amour! There is the true love, there is the only
thing in the world worth striving for; there is the thing
beside which all your arts and ideals, all your
philosophies and creeds, all your fine words and high
attitudes, are as pale and profitless as ashes. When