Des Lupeaulx had reached an age when men assert pretensions in regard to women.

The first white hairs lead to the latest passions, all the more violent because they are astride of vanishing powers and dawning weakness.

The age of forty is the age of folly,--an age when man wants to be loved for himself; whereas at twenty-five life is so full that he has no wants.

At twenty-five he overflows with vigor and wastes it with impunity, but at forty he learns that to use it in that way is to abuse it.

The thoughts that came into des Lupeaulx's mind at this moment were melancholy ones.