journey to Damascus. ...

LADY. To a parting? (Silence.) Yes, a parting!

(The LADY goes on her way. The STRANGER falls on to a chair by the
table. The TEMPTER puts his head in at the window, and rests
himself on his elbows whilst he smokes a cigarette.)

TEMPTER. Ah, yes! C'est l'amour! The most mysterious of all
mysteries, the most inexplicable of all that can't be explained,
the most precarious of all that's insecure.

STRANGER. So you're here?

TEMPTER. I'm always everywhere, where it smells of quarrels. And in
love affairs there are always quarrels.

STRANGER. Always?

TEMPTER. Always! I was invited to a silver wedding yesterday.
Twenty-five years are no trifle--and for twenty-five years they'd
been quarrelling. The whole love affair had been one long shindy,
with many little ones in between! And yet they loved one another,
and were grateful for all the good that had come to them; the evil
was forgotten, wiped out--for a moment's happiness is worth ten
days of blows and pinpricks. Oh yes! Those who won't accept evil
never get anything good. The rind's very bitter, though the
kernel's sweet.

STRANGER. But very small.