one has experienced love-the true love-what is there in
the world that seems more than a mere ghost of joy?
"More and more savagely I renewed the attack.
Again and again the girl tried to escape; she cried out
for mercy anew, but I laughed at her.
" 'Mercy!' I said, 'do you suppose I have come here
to show mercy? Do you suppose I have paid a
thousand francs for that?' I swear to you, messieurs et
dames, that if it were not for that accursed law that robs
us of our liberty, I would have murdered her at that
moment.
« Ah, how she screamed, with what bitter cries of
agony. But there was no one to hear them; down there
under the streets of Paris we were as secure as at the
heart of a pyramid. Tears streamed down the girl's
face, washing away the powder in long, dirty smears.
Ah, that irrecoverable time! You,
messieurs et dames, you
who have not cultivated the finer sensibilities of love,
for you such pleasure is almost beyond conception.
And I too, now that my youth is gone-ah, youth!-
shall never again see life so beautiful as that. It
is finished.
« Ah yes, it is gone-gone for ever. Ah, the poverty,
the shortness, the disappointment of human joy! For
in reality-car
en réalité, what is the duration of the
supreme moment of love? It is nothing, an instant, a
second perhaps.