pale, languishing face
about which her fair hair fell loosely; to him she looked like one
asleep, her pink nostrils still dilating with a spasmodic movement, and
it seemed to him that he had just suffered from the perturbing contact
of a courtesan in the depths of some luxurious den.

It was an immediate reawakening, enervating but furious. She had given
herself impulsively. He recovered himself similarly. The sudden contact
of two bodies resulted in the immediate recoil of two beings.

With more bitter shame, he had had similar morose awakenings after a
dissipated night, his heart, his brave heart thumping against the
passionate form, often lean and sallow, of some satiated girl, fearfully
weary.

What cowardice! Was it Vaudrey's mistress or the future wife of Rosas
who had clung to his lips?

He felt disgusted at heart.

Yet she was adorable, this still young and lovely Marianne.

With cruel perspicacity, he already foresaw that he would be guilty of
cowardly conduct in yielding to this sudden weakness, and ashamed of
himself he disengaged himself from her hysterical embrace, while
Marianne squatted on his bed, throwing back her hair from her face,
still smiling as she looked at him and asked:

"Well--what? What is the matter with you, then?"

She rose slowly, slipping upon the carpet while he went to the window to
look mechanically into the yard. Between these two creatures but a
moment before clasped together, a sudden icy coldness sprung up as if
each had divined that the hour was about to sound, terrible as a knell,
when their affairs must be settled. The kisses of love are to be paid
for.

Standing before the mirror, half undressed, Marianne was arranging her
hair. Her white shoulders, her still heaving and oppressed bosom were
still exposed within the border of her fine chemisette. She felt her
wrists, instinctively examining her bracelets, and looked toward the bed
in an absent sort of way as if to see if some charm had not slipped from
them.

"Guy," she said abruptly, but in a tone which she tried to make
endearing, "promise me that you will not refuse what I am about to ask
you."

"I promise."

They now quite naturally substituted for the "thou" of affectionate
address, the more formal "you," secretly realizing that after the
intertwining of their bodies, their real individualities independent of
all surprises or sensual appetite, would find themselves face to face.

"I could wish that our a