One day, I was warned that Valerie was deceiving me, and had done so for a long time.

I could not believe it at first; it seemed to me impossible, absurd.

I would have sooner doubted myself than her.

I had taken her from a garret, where she was working sixteen hours a day to earn a few pence; she owed all to me.

I had made her so much a part of myself that I could not credit her being false.