For the moment, while he lavished presents upon her, and
performed all manner of services, he could rely on advantages not
contained in his person, or in his intellect, could forego the endless,
killing effort to make himself attractive. And this delight in being a
lover, in living by love alone, of the reality of which he was inclined to
be doubtful, the price which, in the long run, he must pay for it, as a
dilettante in immaterial sensations, enhanced its value in his eyes--as
one sees people who are doubtful whether the sight of the sea and the
sound of its waves are really enjoyable, become convinced that they
are, as also of the rare quality and absolute detachment of their own
taste, when they have agreed to pay several pounds a day for a room in an
hotel, from which that sight and that sound may be enjoyed.
One day, when reflections of this order had brought him once again to the
memory of the time when some one had spoken to him of Odette as of a
'kept' woman, and when, once again, he had amused himself with contrasting
that strange personification, the 'kept' woman--an iridescent mixture of
unknown and demoniacal qualities, embroidered, as in some fantasy of
Gustave Moreau, with poison-dripping flowers, interwoven with precious
jewels--with that Odette upon whose face he had watched the passage of the
same expressions of pity for a sufferer, resentment of an act of
injustice, gratitude for an act of kindness, which he had seen, in earlier
days, on his own mother's face, and on the faces of friends; that Odette,
whose conversation had so frequently turned on the things that he himself
knew better than anyone, his collections, his room, his old servant, his
banker, who kept all his title-deeds and bonds;--the thought of the banker
reminded him that he must call on him shortly, to draw some money.
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