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190 surprised by her absurd husband—how shameful that would be!

"If Leonor came here we could easily ﬁnd some means. I could have a headache, one Sunday, stay in my room, be alone in the house; besides, there is luck."

She always entrusted herself to luck. She had never yielded to any of her lovers except on the spur of the moment.

"Might we not recapture," she went on, "something of the night at Compiègne, even in a rapid abandonment?"

Women are ruminants: they can live for months, for years it may be, on a voluptuous memory. That is what explains the apparent virtue of certain women; one lovely sin, like a beautiful ﬂower with an immortal perfume, is enough to bless all the days of their life. Women still remember the ﬁrst kiss when men have forgotten the last.

Hortense dreamed, Leonor desired. He thought only of yesterday's mistress, when he did think of her, in order to make her the mistress of to-morrow. His sentimentality was material. He crossed the stream from stone to stepping-stone, from reality to reality. In de-