hes. For it is not your action that revolts
me; it is your apathy, your flabbiness, your cowardice!... You gave
yourself without knowing why! You did not surrender for the sake of the
joy that makes us fairer and better! You did not surrender because love
had taken your heart by storm! You did not sacrifice yourself to an
idea: had it been vile and base, I could still have accepted it! No, you
gave yourself without knowing why! You obeyed the will of the
first-comer, as the silliest and most docile of wives obeys the
recognised canons and conventions ... without knowing why!... Ah, Rose,
Rose! I wanted to help you to become strong and free. What a character,
what a disposition you bring me! And yet I did not ask so much! I wanted
your nature to have strength and flexibility, so that my hands might
have taken it and moulded it. I looked forward to shaping it and giving
it nobility and refinement...."

Tears choked my words. At that moment, the disappointment appeared to me
complete and irreparable. Still, so as not to sadden her unduly, I
murmured:

"Do not misunderstand me, my poor Rose; I am not saying that you soiled
yourself by yielding to that man. I should not care much if you had;
for, if the fairest forms could take birth from the mud in the gutter,
you would see me plunge my hands in it without reluctance. No, what
distresses me is your weakness; and I have simply likened your nature to
a substance without consistency and impossible to mould."

Rose moaned and sobbed:

"To please you, I will brave everything.... Don't forsake me!... Go on
loving me!..."

I divined rather than saw the body lying prone, with her head on the
ground; and the paler shadow of her hair reminded me of the dear beauty
of her. I grew calmer. The comfort of having said all that I had to say
relieved my heart and sent rippling through my veins, like a cool
stream, a more natural indulgence than that which had animated me at
first. Bending over Rose, I reflected that reason weighs heavily on a
woman's breast and that it is well to thrust it aside occasionally. I
tried to reassure her between my kisses:

"I am wrong to be so irritable and despondent; forgive me! I believe
that your nature will never be vivid or strong; but your newly-developed
conscience will save you from fresh weaknesses. Besides, in some
direction we shall find what you are capable of. Destiny asks little of
us when we have little to give it; and events pass us by o