nately on various
places, and she said things to me that were suitable for being whispered
on the pillows, while a strange languor overshadowed her eyes, and
dilated her nostrils.

And suddenly with a mocking gesture, which seemed to bid defiance to the
supper that was laid on a small table, cold meat of various kinds,
plates of fruit and of cakes, the ice pail, from which the neck of a
bottle of champagne protruded, she said merrily:

"I am not at all hungry, dear; let us have supper later! what do you
say?"

She half turned round to the large bed, which seemed to be quite ready
for us, and which looked white in the shadow of the recess in which it
stood, with its two white, untouched, almost solemn pillows. She was not
smiling any more; there was a bluish gleam in her eyes, like that of
burning alcohol, and I lost my head. Elaine did not try to escape, and
did not utter a complaint.

Oh! that night of torture and delight, that night which ought never to
have ended!

I determined that I would be as patient as a policeman who is trying to
discover the traces of a crime, that I would investigate the past of
this girl, about which I knew nothing, as I should be sure to discover
some proof, some important reminiscence, some servant who had been her
accomplice.

And yet I adored her, my pretty, my divine Elaine, and I would consent
no matter to what if only she were what I dreamt her, what I wished her
to be, if only this nightmare would go and no longer rise up between her
and me.

When she woke up, she spoke to me in her coaxing voice.... Oh! her
kisses, again her kisses, always her kisses, in spite of everything!

Oh! to have believed blindly, to have believed on my knees that she was
not lying, that she was not making a mockery of my tenderness, and that
she had never belonged, and never would belong, to any one but me!

PART VIII

I wished that I could have transformed myself into one of those crafty,
unctuous priests, to whom women confess their most secret faults, to
whom they entrust their souls and frequently ask for advice, and that
Elaine would have come and knelt at the grating of the confessional,
where I should press her closely with questions, and gradually extract
sincere confidences from her.

As soon as I am by the side of a young or old woman now, I try to give
our conversation a ticklish turn; I forget all reserve and I try to make
her talk of those jokes which nettle, those words of dou