“Ah,” he said to himself, “would it not be much wiser to take the marks out of my linen and to go into some solitary forest twenty leagues from Paris to put an end to this atrocious life? I should be unknown in the district, my death would remain a secret for a fortnight, and who would bother about me after a fortnight?”
This reasoning was very logical. But on the following day a glimpse of Mathilde’s arm between the sleeve of her dress and her glove sufficed to plunge our young philosopher into memories which, though agonising, none the less gave him a hold on life. “Well,” he said to himself, “I will follow this Russian plan to the end. How will it all finish?”
“So far as the maréchale is concerned, after I have copied out these fifty-three letters, I shall not write any others.
“As for Mathilde, these six weeks of painful acting will either leave her anger unchanged, or will win me a moment of reconciliation. Great God! I should die of happiness.” And he could not finish his train of thought.
After a long reverie he succeeded in taking up the thread of his argument. “In that case,” he said to himself, “I should win one day of happiness, and after that her cruelties which are based, alas, on my lack of ability to please her will recommence. I should have nothing left to do, I should be ruined and lost for ever. With such a character as hers what guarantee can she give me? Alas! My manners are no doubt lacking in elegance, and my style of speech is heavy and monotonous. Great God, why am I myself?”
[CHAPTER LIX]
ENNUI
Sacrificing one’s self to one’s passions, let it pass; but sacrificing one’s self to passions which one has not got! Oh! melancholy nineteenth century!
Girodet.