Short Stories, vol 8 | Page 6

and I brought the unfortunate girl
home with me, for the right leg was broken in three places, and the
bones had come trough the flesh. She did not complain, and merely
said, with admirable resignation: 'I am punished, well punished!'
"I sent for assistance and for the work-girl's relatives and told them a,
made-up story of a runaway carriage which had knocked her down and
lamed her outside my door. They believed me, and the gendarmes for a
whole month tried in vain to find the author of this accident.
"That is all! And I say that this woman was a heroine and belonged to
the race of those who accomplish the grandest deeds of history.
"That was her only love affair, and she died a virgin. She was a martyr,
a noble soul, a sublimely devoted woman! And if I did not absolutely
admire her, I should not have told you this story, which I would never
tell any one during her life; you understand why."
The doctor ceased. Mamma cried and papa said some words which I

did not catch; then they left the room and I remained on my knees in
the armchair and sobbed, whilst I heard a strange noise of heavy
footsteps and something knocking against the side of the staircase.
They were carrying away Clochette's body.

THE KISS
My Little Darling: So you are crying from morning until night and
from night until morning, because your husband leaves you; you do not
know what to do and so you ask your old aunt for advice; you must
consider her quite an expert. I don't know as much as you think I do,
and yet I am not entirely ignorant of the art of loving, or, rather, of
making one's self loved, in which you are a little lacking. I can admit
that at my age.
You say that you are all attention, love, kisses and caresses for him.
Perhaps that is the very trouble; I think you kiss him too much.
My dear, we have in our hands the most terrible power in the world:
LOVE.
Man is gifted with physical strength, and he exercises force. Woman is
gifted with charm, and she rules with caresses. It is our weapon,
formidable and invincible, but we should know how to use it.
Know well that we are the mistresses of the world! To tell the history
of Love from the beginning of the world would be to tell the history of
man himself: Everything springs from it, the arts, great events, customs,
wars, the overthrow of empires.
In the Bible you find Delila, Judith; in fables we find Omphale, Helen;
in history the Sabines, Cleopatra and many others.
Therefore we reign supreme, all-powerful. But, like kings, we must
make use of delicate diplomacy.
Love, my dear, is made up of imperceptible sensations. We know that it
is as strong as death, but also as frail as glass. The slightest shock
breaks it, and our power crumbles, and we are never able to raise it
again.
We have the power of making ourselves adored, but we lack one tiny
thing, the understanding of the various kinds of caresses. In embraces
we lose the sentiment of delicacy, while the man over whom we rule
remains master of himself, capable of judging the foolishness of certain
words. Take care, my dear; that is the defect in our armor. It is our

Achilles' heel.
Do you know whence comes our real power? From the kiss, the kiss
alone! When we know how to hold out and give up our lips we can
become queens.
The kiss is only a preface, however, but a charming preface. More
charming than the realization itself. A preface which can always be
read over again, whereas one cannot always read over the book.
Yes, the meeting of lips is the most perfect, the most divine sensation
given to human beings, the supreme limit of happiness: It is in the kiss
alone that one sometimes seems to feel this union of souls after which
we strive, the intermingling of hearts, as it were.
Do you remember the verses of Sully-Prudhomme:
Caresses are nothing but anxious bliss, Vain attempts of love to unite
souls through a kiss.
One caress alone gives this deep sensation of two beings welded into
one --it is the kiss. No violent delirium of complete possession is worth
this trembling approach of the lips, this first moist and fresh contact,
and then the long, lingering, motionless rapture.
Therefore, my dear, the kiss is our strongest weapon, but we must take
care not to dull it. Do not forget that its value is only relative, purely
conventional. It continually changes according to circumstances, the
state of expectancy and the ecstasy of the mind.