I have had my own delusions, when I sent the ideal to the right-about and made realism my god, but as time has gone on my theories have gone back on me, and tradition has come into its own, until now I see the skeleton in every beautiful body, and the heart of me craves something behind even the bones--the soul of the creature." "But that is different, because your desire and your theory have been the common desire and theory--the things that burn themselves out.

My theory is not of the body, it is of the mind.

I only contend that in all the greater concerns of life I am a being perfectly competent to stand alone." "My dear boy, by the mercy of God all the ideas of youth are reversible! My fire has been extinguished; your ice will hold until the sun is in the zenith, and not one moment longer." "I deny it! I deny it!" He spoke with a fine defiance.

He paused, the more convincingly to express himself; but even as he paused, his eyes and his mind were suddenly opened to a fresh impression, were lured from the moment of gravity, caught and held by the lights and crowds into which they had abruptly emerged--lights and crowds through which the pervading sense of a pleasure-chase stole like a scent borne on a breeze.
"Where are we ?" he said, sharply.

"What place is this ?" "The Boulevard de Clichy.