Then you did love him?

MME. DE SALLUS

Yes and no. If I loved him, it was the love of a little fool; but I
certainly never told him, for positively I do not know how to show love.

JACQUES DE RANDOL

I can vouch for that!

MME. DE SALLUS

Well, it is possible that I cared for him sometimes, idiotically, like a
timid, restless, trembling, awkward, little girl, always in fear of that
disturbing thing--the love of a man--that disturbing thing that is
sometimes so sweet! As for him,--you know him. He was a sweetheart, a
society sweetheart, who are always the worst of all. Such men really
have a lasting affection only for those girls who are fitting companions
for clubmen--girls who have a habit of telling doubtful stories and
bestowing depraved kisses. It seems to me that to attract and to hold
such people, the nude and obscene are necessary both in word and in
body--unless--unless--it is true that men are incapable of loving any
woman for a length of time.

However, I soon became aware that he was indifferent to me, for he used
to kiss me as a matter of course and look at me without realizing my
presence; and in his manners, in his actions, in his conversation, he
showed that I attracted him no longer. As soon as he came into the room
he would throw himself upon the sofa, take up the newspaper, read it,