At five o'clock in the morning, as the light began to appear through the curtains, Marguerite said to me: "Forgive me if I send you away; but I must.

The duke comes every morning; they will tell him, when he comes, that I am asleep, and perhaps he will wait until I wake." I took Marguerite's head in my hands; her loosened hair streamed about her; I gave her a last kiss, saying: "When shall I see you again ?" "Listen," she said; "take the little gilt key on the mantelpiece, open that door; bring me back the key and go.

In the course of the day you shall have a letter, and my orders, for you know you are to obey blindly." "Yes; but if I should already ask for something ?" "What ?" "Let me have that key." "What you ask is a thing I have never done for any one." "Well, do it for me, for I swear to you that I don't love you as the others have loved you." "Well, keep it; but it only depends on me to make it useless to you, after all." "How ?" "There are bolts on the door." "Wretch!" "I will have them taken off." "You love, then, a little ?" "I don't know how it is, but it seems to me as if I do! Now, go; I can't keep my eyes open." I held her in my arms for a few seconds and then went.
The streets were empty, the great city was still asleep, a sweet freshness circulated in the streets that a few hours later would be filled with the noise of men.

It seemed to me as if this sleeping city belonged to me; I searched my memory for the names of those whose happiness I had once envied; and I could not recall one without finding myself the happier.
To be loved by a pure young girl, to be the first to reveal to her the strange mystery of love, is indeed a great happiness, but it is the simplest thing in the world.

To take captive a heart which has had no experience of attack, is to enter an unfortified and ungarrisoned city.
Education, family feeling, the sense of duty, the family, are strong sentinels, but there are no sentinels so vigilant as not to be deceived by a girl of sixteen to whom nature, by the voice of the man she loves, gives the first counsels of love, all the more ardent because they seem so pure.
The more a girl believes in goodness, the more easily will she give way, if not to her lover, at least to love, for being without mistrust she is without force, and to win her love is a triumph that can be gained by any young man of five-and-twenty.