"My senses would be lasting better than they are, and when at last they failed, I should die quicker, from want of food and warmth, that's all."
"Have you ever been in love, Mr. Vaness?"
"I am in love now."
"And your love has no element of devotion, no finer side?"
"None. It wants."
"I have never been in love. But, if I were, I think I should want to lose myself rather than to gain the other."
"Would you? Sabine, I am in love with you."
"Oh! Shall we walk on?"
I heard their footsteps, and was alone again, with the old gardener lopping at his shrubs.
But what a perfect declaration of hedonism! How simple and how solid was the Vaness theory of existence! Almost Assyrian, worthy of Louis Quinze!