But the world,
after all, is just; it gives the homage of its interest to real
feelings only. Beatrix playing comedy was judged to be a second-rate
actress. There was no reason whatever for her flight; the sword of
Damocles was not suspended over her head; she is neither sincere, nor
loving, nor tender; if she were, would she have gone away with Conti
this morning?"
Camille talked long and eloquently; but this last effort to open
Calyste's eyes was useless, and she said no more when he expressed to
her by a gesture his absolute belief in Beatrix.
She forced him to come down into the dining-room and sit there while
she dined; though he himself was unable to swallow food. It is only
during extreme youth that these contractions of the bodily functions
occur. Later, the organs have acquired, as it were, fixed habits, and
are hardened. The reaction of the mental and moral system upon the
physical is not enough to produce a mortal illness unless the physical
system retains its primitive purity. A man resists the violent grief
that kills a youth, less by the greater weakness of his affection than
by the greater strength of his organs.
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