Man and Maid

"You could not forget that I am rich, Suzette?"

"If I did I might love you--Jamais!"

"And does the sea help to prevent an attack?"-"Absence--and I go to a poor place I knew when I was young, and I wash

and cook, and make myself remember what la vie dure was--and would be

again if one loved--Bah! that does it. I come back cured--and ready only

to please such as thou, Nicholas!--rich, rich!"

* * * * *

And she laughed again her rippling gay laugh-We had a pleasant evening, she told me the history of her life--or some

of it--They were ever the same from Lucien's Myrtale.

* * * * *

When all of me is aching--Shall I too, find solace if I go to the sea?

Who knows?