"Only as far as your door!"
"For what reason, then? Come, ring for me, if you please."
He obeyed. The door opened, she offered him her hand, then slowly, with movements of weariness or regret, she crossed the threshold. Still more slowly she pushed the door behind her, pausing twice before closing it.
At the moment of the inexorable sound, Hubert experienced a great sadness. He remained there for a few seconds, without thought, then suddenly a quite illogical association of ideas made him see once more the quasi-nuptial room of the "dark Marceline," and in this story he now divined, without really knowing why, premonitory ironies. Then he walked away, dreaming of doors which close, of doors which have been opened and which no longer open.
[CHAPTER XXIX]
PANTOMIME
"Il paraît que l'opéra était fini."
E. and J. de Goncourt,
Idées et Sensations.