1. A man
like Deslauriers was worth all the women in the world.
2. Frédéric
had expected to feel paroxysms of joy; but passions wilt when they
are transplanted, and, finding Madame Arnoux in a setting which
was unfamiliar to him, he had the impression that she had somehow
lost something, suffered a vague degradation, in short, that she
had changed. The calm of his heart astounded him.
3. Women's
hearts were like those desks full of secret drawers that fit one
inside another; you struggle with them, you break your fingernails,
and at the bottom you find a withered flower, a little dust, or
nothing at all! Perhaps he was afraid too of finding out too much.
5. They had
both failed, one to realize his dreams of love, the other to fulfill
his dreams of power. What was the reason?
“Perhaps it's because we didn't steer
a straight course,” said Frédéric.
“That may be true in your case. I, on
the other hand, was far too rigid in my line of conduct . . . I
was too logical, and you were too sentimental.”
Then they blamed chance, circumstances,
the times into which they were born.
