The first vows sworn by two creatures of flesh and blood were made at the foot of a rock that was crumbling to dust; they called as witness to their constancy a heaven which never stays the same for one moment; everything within them and around them was changing, and they thought their hearts were exempt from vicissitudes. Children!

Oeuvres romanesques (ed. H. Bénac, revised L. Perol, 1981) translated by Peter France