others which come to the
same thing and which are not such good form. But if one looks into the
matter more closely he had not deceived her. He had sought her, he had
sought her out of herself and had learned that he would find her in
herself alone. In his futile wisdom he was almost angered and alarmed;
he was uneasy at having to stake the multitude of his desires upon so
slender a substance, in so unique and fragile a vessel. And he loved
Felicie all the more because he loved her with a certain depth of rage
and hatred.

On the very day of his arrival in Paris, he made an appointment with her
in a bachelor's flat, which a rich colleague in the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs had placed at his disposal. It was situated in the Avenue de
l'Alma, on the ground-floor of an attractive-looking house, and
consisted of a couple of small rooms hung with a design of suns with
brown hearts and golden rays, which rose, uniform, peaceful, and
shadowless on the cheerful wall. The rooms were modern in style; the
furniture was of a pale green, decorated with flowering branches; its
outlines followed the gentle curves of the liliaceous plants, and
assumed something of the tender feeling of moist vegetation. The
cheval-glass leant slightly forward in its frame of bulbous plants of
supple form, terminating in closed corollas, and in this frame the
mirror had the coolness of water. A white bearskin lay stretched at the
foot of the bed.

"You! You! It's you!" was all she could say.

She saw the pupils of his eyes shining and heavy with desire, and while
she gazed at him a cloud gathered before her eyes. The subtle fire of
her blood, the burning of her loins, the warm breath of her lungs, the
fiery colour of her face, were all blended in her mouth, and she pressed
on her lover's lips a long, long kiss, a kiss pregnant with all these
fires and as fresh as a flower in the dew.

They asked one another twenty things at a time, and their questions
intermingled.

"Were you wretched, Robert, when you were away from me?"

"So you are making your debut at the Comedie?

"Is The Hague a pretty place?"

"Yes, a quiet little town. Red, grey, yellow houses, with stepped
gables, green shutters, and geraniums at the windows."

"What did you do there?"

"Not much. I walked round the Vijver."

"You did not go with women, I should hope?"

"No, upon my word. How pretty you are, my darling! Are you well again
now?"

"Yes, I am cured."

And in su