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"'No,' said he, 'I have not; but if I had?'
"'You would love him—or her, and then my life would be blasted for ever.'
"'No, not for ever; only for a time, perhaps. But could you not forgive me?'
"'Yes, if you still loved me.'
"The idea of losing him sent a sharp pang through my heart, which seemed to act like a sound flagellation, my eyes were filled with tears, and my blood was on fire. I therefore clasped him in my arms and hugged him, straining all my muscles in my embrace; my lips eagerly sought his, my tongue was in his mouth. The more I kissed him the sadder I grew, and the more eager was my desire. I stopped a moment to look at him. How handsome he was that day! His beauty was almost ethereal.
"I can see him now with that aureole of hair so soft and silky, the colour of a golden ray of sunshine playing through a crystal goblet of topaz-coloured wine, with his moist half-opened mouth, Oriental in its voluptuousness, with his blood-red lips which no illness had withered like those of the painted, musk-scented courtezans
