We are sometimes obliged to buy the satisfaction of our souls at the expense of our bodies, and we suffer still more, when, afterward, that satisfaction is denied us." I listened, and I gazed at Marguerite with admiration.

When I thought that this marvellous creature, whose feet I had once longed to kiss, was willing to let me take my place in her thoughts, my part in her life, and that I was not yet content with what she gave me, I asked if man's desire has indeed limits when, satisfied as promptly as mine had been, it reached after something further.
"Truly," she continued, "we poor creatures of chance have fantastic desires and inconceivable loves.

We give ourselves now for one thing, now for another.

There are men who ruin themselves without obtaining the least thing from us; there are others who obtain us for a bouquet of flowers.

Our hearts have their caprices; it is their one distraction and their one excuse.