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188 body? Why not? It is indeed, probably, the best kind of love. Bite, eat, devour! How well they realize it—those who reduce the object of their love to a little bit of bread which they swallow. The Communion—what an act of love! It's marvellous. Bouret would think that foolish, perhaps; but Bouret, right as he is in being a materialist, is wrong in not understanding materialistic mysticism. Can anyone be at once more materialistic and more mystical than those Christians who believe in the Real Presence? Flesh and blood—that's what lovers want too, and they too have to content themselves with a mere symbol."

"... our mad night. It revealed a new world to me. I shall not die, like Joshua, without having seen the earthly paradise."

This phrase, despite its banality, pleased Leonor, who had begun to feel more indulgent towards his mistress.

"To write a long letter like this was a great effort for her, and as it was for me that she made the effort, I should be a cad to laugh at it. That is why it would be as well to read no more. I shall ask her to give me a rendezvous at Carentan. It will give her pleasure and me