hatred?

"Even if your mistress had never deceived you, even if at this moment
she loved none other than you, think, Octave, how far her love would
still be from perfection, how human it would be, how small, how
restrained by the hypocrisies and conventions of the world; remember
that another man possessed her before you, that many others will possess
her after you.

"Reflect: what drives you at this moment to despair is the idea of
perfection in your mistress, the idea that has been shattered. But
when you understand that the primal idea itself was human, small and
restricted, you will see that it is little more than a rung in the
rotten ladder of human imperfection.

"I think you will readily admit that your mistress has had other
admirers, and that she will have still others in the future; you will
doubtless reply that it matters little, so long as she loved you. But I
ask you, since she has had others, what difference does it make whether
it was yesterday or two years since? Since she loves but one at a time,
what does it matter whether it is during an interval of two years or
in the course of a single night? Are you a man, Octave? Do you see the
leaves falling from the trees, the sun rising and setting? Do you hear
the ticking of the horologe of time with each pulsation of your heart?
Is there, then, such a difference between the love of a year and the
love of an hour? I challenge you to answer that, you fool, as you sit
there looking out at the infinite through a window not larger than your
hand.

"You consider that woman faithful who loves you two years; you must have
an almanac that will indicate just how long it takes for an honest man's
kisses to dry on a woman's lips. You make a distinction between the
woman who sells herself for money and the one who gives herself for
pleasure; between the one who gives herself through pride and the one
who gives herself through devotion. Among women who are for sale, some
cost more than others; among those who are sought for pleasure some
inspire more confidence than others; and among those who are worthy of
devotion there are some who receive a third of a man's heart, others a
quarter, others a half, depending upon her education, her manner, her
name, her birth, her beauty, her temperament, according to the occasion,
according to what is said, according to the time, according to what you
have drunk at dinner.

"You love women, Octave, because you are young, ardent, b