Camille (La Dame aux Camilias)

"What did she do last night?"

"She went to the opera."

"I know. And afterward?"

"She had supper at home."

"Alone?"

"With the Comte de G., I believe."

So my breaking with her had not changed one of her habits. It is for

such reasons as this that certain people say to you: Don't have anything

more to do with the woman; she cares nothing about you.

"Well, I am very glad to find that Marguerite does not put herself out

for me," I said with a forced smile.

"She has very good reason not to. You have done what you were bound to

do. You have been more reasonable than she, for she was really in love

with you; she did nothing but talk of you. I don't know what she would

not have been capable of doing."

"Why hasn't she answered me, if she was in love with me?"

"Because she realizes she was mistaken in letting herself love you.

Women sometimes allow you to be unfaithful to their love; they never

allow you to wound their self-esteem; and one always wounds the

self-esteem of a woman when, two days after one has become her lover,

one leaves her, no matter for what reason. I know Marguerite; she would

die sooner than reply."

"What can I do, then?"

"Nothing. She will forget you, you will forget her, and neither will

have any reproach to make against the other."

"But if I write and ask her forgiveness?"

"Don't do that, for she would forgive you."

I could have flung my arms round Prudence's neck.

A quarter of an hour later I was once more in my own quarters, and I

wrote to Marguerite: "Some one, who repents of a letter that he wrote yesterday and who will

leave Paris to-morrow if you do not forgive him, wishes to know at what

hour he might lay his repentance at your feet.

"When can he find you alone? for, you know, confessions must be made

without witnesses."

I folded this kind of madrigal in prose, and sent it by Joseph, who

handed it to Marguerite herself; she replied that she would send the

answer later.

I only went out to have a hasty dinner, and at eleven in the evening no

reply had come. I made up my mind to endure it no longer, and to set out

next day. In consequence of this resolution, and convinced that I should

not sleep if I went to bed, I began to pack up my things.