Coutances

“ The book had comforted her; she had read it in the Woods, on the dunes, by the sea; and, in the warm summer air, with its tang of salt, she had sat with the book in her hands and felt him with her, though absent. . . . She knew the sentences by heart; but she tempered her enthusiasm, lest she should betray herself. And, when she had spoken of the book and was silent for a moment, he said:
"And now tell me about yourself! What have you been doing all these months?" ”

“ What through the coercion of mere circumstances—what through the entreaties of wife and children, co-operating with such circumstances—or sometimes through weakness of nature, or through relenting of compunction—it is not to be doubted that, as the cohesion of party begins rapidly to relax under approaching ruin, there will be confessions in abundance. ”

“ There are four or five whom I respect: the honest Couthon, who thinks nothing of his own sufferings, and only of those of the world; the lovable and modest Le Bas; my brother, who has a good heart but thinks too much about his pleasure; two children, and a man who is on the point of death. ”

“ How close the coils of evil round me pressed,
"Till, like some swimmer boastful of his strength
Who dares too far, I faced the truth at length—
Perceived the awful distance I had come,
And, battling back, despaired of reaching home. ”

“ Is 't not enough to feel it thine?
Like Semele, would'st gaze on the Divine?
Secret the soul of Rapture dwells;
Love gives, yet jealous tests repels
Nor will of force be known,
And bashful Beauty, viewed too near—is gone. ”

“ One taught his heart her smiles, the tears she wept.
Each made him love her as the child his home,
⁠And, mother-wise, reclaimed his wandering glance:
⁠Belovèd England and belovèd France,—
Each drew him, though, afar, he could not come. ”

“ Why, he would suffer, for a quart of wine,
Some good fellow to have his concubine
A twelve-month, and excuse him to the full
(Between ourselves, though, he could pluck a gull) .
And if he chanced upon a good fellow,
He would instruct him never to have awe,
In such a case, of the archdeacon's curse,
Except a man's soul lie within his purse;
For in his purse the man should punished be. ”

“ It suddenly appeared to her that, of all these people who belonged to her and of all the others, the acquaintances, whom with a swift mental effort she grouped around them, there was not one who could send a single thought shining out far and wide, towards the wide horizons yonder, without thinking of himself, his wife and his children and clinging to his prejudices about money, position, religion and birth . ”

“ I abandon you to your own conscience, which, I am sure, is sometimes even more severe than I, whom you accuse of harshness and indifference. The hypocrisy which you practise so well in sport, will play you a trick some day—that is, it will become natural to you. As for coquetry, the inseparable companion of the horrid vice which you extol, you have always indulged in it. It became you very well when it was softened by frankness, warm-heartedness, and imagination, but now—now, what shall I say? ”

“ I⁠ HEARD a voice say: "You,
Who worship, should pursue:
The good you dream of—do.
"Arise!—perfection seek.
Surmounting what is weak,
Toil on from peak to peak!"
"Henceforth, through sun and shade,"
I answered, "unafraid,
I follow the shy maid:
"Yea, beauty to create,
Accept with heart elate
Whate'er may be my fate." ”

“ Oh, if the illusion had come about which, in the later life reborn out of themselves, he and Constance had conceived, without a word to each other, in a single, brightly glittering moment, oh, if Henri's illusion had come about and that of this young woman, now the little mother of three children, would it all have been better than it now was? ”

“ Let me advise you, then, in conducting this affair,—an affair big, perhaps, with your future fate,—to lay aside those coquettish airs which you sometimes put on; and remember that you are not dealing with a fop, who will take advantage of every concession, but with a man of sense and honor, who will properly estimate your condescension and frankness. Act, then, with that modest freedom, that dignified unreserve, which bespeak conscious rectitude and sincerity of heart. ”

“ Oppressed me, and I said: "We cheat
⁠Our hearts with hope. Man sunken lies
In vice, and naught that's fair or sweet
⁠Finds further favor in his eyes.
"Vainly we strive, in sanguine mood,
To elevate a savage brood
⁠Which, from the cradle, sordid, dull,
No longer has a wish for good,
⁠Or craving for the beautiful." ”

“ Is the man opposite me my son, my child, brought up by myself, and is what he is telling me the truth or an illusion?’ And, if that illusion is the truth, Henri, if you are so entirely lost to every sense of moral and parental duty, then I am very, very sorry to hear it and I sit staring into a horrible abyss ”

“ Thus it is that fanatical sects have been seen mingling crime and devotion, finding in one the excuse, often even the motive, of the other, and prefacing infamous irregularities or abominable cruelties with mystic transports,—deplorable consequences of the chimera of pure love, of the pretension of sentiment to rule over reason, to serve alone as a guide to the human soul, and to put itself in direct communication with God, without the intermediary of the visible world, and without the still surer intermediary of intelligence and truth. ”

“ Were there no hell,—I, for love's sake,
⁠Would toil with ardent willingness.
And if—O Thou that pitiest
⁠The fallen, lone, and tempest-tost!—
If, Love Divine, Thou wilt but save
⁠Whom I do love, none shall be lost! ”

“ If her coat stirred with the chill breeze, he would pat and pet her. It was evident enough which had the better existence.
If these thoughts chafed and angered me at first, at least they served to animate and rouse my spirit. He who wants to rise in life must feel the sharp spur of a wrong,—there is nothing like it to give vigor and energy to his motions. ”

“ There was the obvious wish to please—a little natural coquetterie—vivacity without effort, sentiment without affectation, exceeding mobility, which yet never looked like caprice; and the most consummate refinement of thought, and feeling, and expression. ”

“ But when concession is made, when tears of penitence are wept, and when, in moments of returning confidence, that luckless tendency of temper is candidly confessed, and sincerely bewailed; when all the different acts committed under its influence, are acknowledged to have been wrong, how complete ought to be the reconciliation thus begun, and how zealous our endeavours for the future to avert the consequences of this sad calamity! ”

“ Till peril no longer appals him,
⁠And danger itself groweth dear.
Poised and strong, asking no intervention,
⁠He hazards the rock and the shoal;
One only thing halts his pretension,—
⁠Love frightens the soul. ”

“ Every man in office, or that could be presumed to bear the slightest influence, every wife, mother, sister, daughter of such men, I besieged morning, noon, and night. I wearied them with my supplications. I humbled myself to the dust; I, the haughtiest of God’s creatures, knelt and prayed to them for the sake of my mother. I besought them that I might undergo the punishment ten times over in her stead. ”

“ Let me do penance for Astra, as I do for Emeralda.”
“No, child, I know no penance. There is nothing but resignation. There is nothing but to wait. Everything else is vanity and pride. But do penance, little Psyche. Penance is illusion, yet illusion is pleasant: illusion ennobles. Believe, poor child, in your penance, believe in your illusion. ”

“ I wouldn't give a pin to make fine men in love with me—every coquette can do that, and the pain you give these creatures is very trifling. I love out-of-the-way conquests; and as I think my attractions are singular, I would draw singular objects. ”

“ He saw himself reflected in the blind eyes of plodding life as a rough, kindly fellow, a good officer, a big, fair-haired man, just a little grey, a good sort to his wife, a good father to his children. ”

“ Deep in my heart a voice answers,
Healing the sense of unworth,
Whispering comfort:—
"Love takes no counsel of prudence;
Wherefore men, timid and doubting,
Marvelling oft at his choice,
Charge him with blindness ”

“ Now does all life work up to the one consummating act of coition? In one direction, it does, and it would be better if psychoanalysis plainly said so. In one direction, all life works up to the one supreme moment of coition. ”

“ My dear guest, I really don't know what you mean by either cockneys, or flunkies, or thieves, or damned; or how only a few people could live happily and comfortably in a wealthy country. All I can see is that you are angry, and I fear with me: so if you like we will change the subject. ”

“ Had his quest always been the self-deception of impotence and was it possible that now that quest had become a search for the one individual soul? Suddenly, through his longing, he remembered an evening: a table with flowers and candles; men talking amid the smoke of their cigars; the burly figure of a fair-haired officer ”

“ But something quivered about the tightly-compressed lips of those marching men, something lurked about the corners of their drawn mouths, that gave one the impression they longed to give utterance to the stark, tormenting things that tore at their heart strings. ”

“ Conceive a poor miserable wretch, who for many years has been attempting to beat off pain, by a constant recurrence to the vice that reproduces it. Conceive a spirit in bell, employed in tracing out for others the road to that heaven, from which his crimes exclude him! In short, conceive whatever is most wretched, helpless, and hopeless, and you will form as tolerable a notion of my state, as it is possible for a good man to have. ”

“ Further strength arises to such an exception, if the very moulding accidents of the life, if the very external coercions are themselves unusually romantic. They may thus gain a separate interest of their own. ”

“ Suddenly he remembered that he had never given her anything except on that first evening in the Woods, a ten-guilder piece and two rixdollars:
"Pauline," he said, "I should like to give you something. I should like to send you something. What may I give you?"
"I don't mind having something . . . but then you mustn't refuse it me. . . ."
"Unless it's impossible. . . ."
"If it's not possible . . . then I won't have anything."
"What is it you'd like?"
"You're sure to have a photograph . . . a group . . . of your children. . . ." ”

“ The action which before commission has been seen with that blended common sense and fresh untarnished feeling which is the healthy eye of the soul, is looked at afterward with the lens of apologetic ingenuity, through which all things that men call beautiful and ugly are seen to be made up of textures very much alike. ”

“ Their guileless lives they offer, Lord,
⁠To aid their country in distress.
Grant to their virtue the reward
⁠Of Thy great tenderness.
Have pity also, Lord, on these—
⁠On these, so docile, faithful, meek!⁠
We supplicate upon our knees
⁠For them that cannot speak. ”

“ He was astonished and told her so, told her that he would never have suspected such sincerity, such fervour, such capacity for pity in a woman of her caste. But she defended her caste, especially because she did not wish to be too exuberant in her new youth and new life and was perpetually suppressing herself. ”

“ But mayhap he will not be so willing to look upon me."
"In his holy Book we read that he is no respecter of persons, and that whosoever cometh unto him he will in no wise cast out."
"Why, then, I can coom as soon as the grandest. How shall I coom?" ”

“ Consider the cloak that our employment or station is; how rarely men treat each other for what in their true and naked characters they are; how we use and tolerate pretension; how the judge is clothed with dignity which does not belong to him, and the trembling witness with humility that does not belong to him, and the criminal, perchance, with shame or impudence which no more belong to him. ”

“ And when most I should be gay
⁠For my triumph,—lo! my sight
⁠Darkens in another's night,
And accusing voices say:
"Guile may lightly vanquish odds;
⁠But though mortals pay the price
⁠And accept the sacrifice,
Treason's hateful to the gods,
⁠⁠⁠Delilah!" ”

“ The rigorous prohibition of coveting has always puzzled me—to covet is such a private feeling. And if you keep it to yourself, what harm does it do? You may spend your life wishing you had your neighbor's large red automobile; but he is none the poorer. ”

“ If I have quarrelled with men, it has been as brothers, or as school-fellows quarrel. How little any man can give me, or take from me, save in matters of kindness and esteem, is not so much a thought or conviction with me, or even a distinct feeling, as it is my very nature. ”

“ These resolutions are no doubt very short, but they will testify the feelings of every right-minded, noble-hearted man, no matter what may have been his opinions as to the past. Every true and generous soul feels that these resolutions are expressive of the sorrow entertained by the whole country. ”

“ A SECRET
MY laddie 's a' the world to me!
⁠'T is to himself I owe it
That I can never more gae free;
⁠But, ah!—he must not know it!
When from my side he roams awa',
⁠I scarce believe I'm living ”

“ She kept calm. She first tried to gloss things over, in a spirit of contradiction; but she was overcome with a deep sense of depression when she thought of her boy and his trouble. For one torturing moment, she doubted whether she had not been very wrong to return to her native land, to her native town, in the midst of all her relations. ”