to dispel humidity--filled the fireplace, whose marble mantlepiece
supported a bust of Marie Antoinette in bisuit. Attached to the
frame of the tarnished and discoloured mirror, two brass hooks, that
had once doubtless served the ladies of old-fashioned days to hang
their chatelaines on, seemed to offer a very opportune means of
suspending my watch, which I took care to wind up beforehand; for,
contrary to the opinion of the Thelemites, I hold that man is only
master of time, which is Life itself, when he has divided it into
hours, minutes and seconds--that is to say, into parts proportioned
to the brevity of human existence.

And I thought to myself that life really seems short to us only
because we measure it irrationally by our own mad hopes. We have all
of us, like the old man in the fable, a new wing to add to our
building. I want, for example, before I die, to finish my "History
of the Abbots of Saint-Germain-de-Pres." The time God allots to
each one of us is like a precious tissue which we embroider as we
best know how. I had begun my woof with all sorts of philological
illustrations.... So my thoughts wandered on; and at last, as I
bound my foulard about my head, the notion of Time led me back to
the past; and for the second time within the same round of the dial
I thought of you, Clementine--to bless you again in your prosperity,
if you have any, before blowing out my candle and falling asleep
amid the chanting of the frogs.



Chapter II