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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: yield, condemned to live a lie in her heart, yet delightful in outward
appearance--for these English rest everything on appearances. Hence
the special charms of their women: the enthusiasm for a love which is
all their life; the minuteness of their care for their persons; the
delicacy of their passion, so charmingly rendered in the famous scene
of Romeo and Juliet in which, with one stroke, Shakespeare's genius
depicted his country-women.
You, who envy them so many things, what can I tell you that you do not
know of these white sirens, impenetrable apparently but easily
fathomed, who believe that love suffices love, and turn enjoyments to
satiety by never varying them; whose soul has one note only, their
The Lily of the Valley |
