I don't know what she would not have been capable of doing." "Why hasn't she answered me, if she was in love with me ?" "Because she realizes she was mistaken in letting herself love you.
Women sometimes allow you to be unfaithful to their love; they never allow you to wound their self-esteem; and one always wounds the self-esteem of a woman when, two days after one has become her lover, one leaves her, no matter for what reason.

I know Marguerite; she would die sooner than reply." "What can I do, then ?" "Nothing.

She will forget you, you will forget her, and neither will have any reproach to make against the other." "But if I write and ask her forgiveness ?" "Don't do that, for she would forgive you." I could have flung my arms round Prudence's neck.
A quarter of an hour later I was once more in my own quarters, and I wrote to Marguerite: "Some one, who repents of a letter that he wrote yesterday and who will leave Paris to-morrow if you do not forgive him, wishes to know at what hour he might lay his repentance at your feet.
"When can he find you alone?
for, you know, confessions must be made without witnesses." I folded this kind of madrigal in prose, and sent it by Joseph, who handed it to Marguerite herself; she replied that she would send the answer later.
I only went out to have a hasty dinner, and at eleven in the evening no reply had come.

I made up my mind to endure it no longer, and to set out next day.

In consequence of this resolution, and convinced that I should not sleep if I went to bed, I began to pack up my things..