Seated by the side of a woman whom he adored, clasping her almost in his arms, in this room in which he had been so happy, plunged in a black darkness, perfectly well aware that for the last minute she had been crying, feeling, from the movement of her bosom, that she was convulsed with sobs, he unfortunately became a frigid politician, almost as calculating and as frigid as when, in the courtyard of the Seminary, he saw himself made the butt of some malicious joke by one of his companions stronger than himself.
Assis à côté d’une femme qu’il adorait, la serrant presque dans ses bras, dans cette chambre où il avait été si heureux, au milieu d’une obscurité profonde, distinguant fort bien que depuis un moment elle pleurait, sentant au mouvement de sa poitrine qu’elle avait des sanglots, il eut le malheur de devenir un froid politique, presque aussi calculant et aussi froid que lorsque, dans la cour du séminaire, il se voyait en butte à quelque mauvaise plaisanterie de la part d’un de ses camarades plus fort que lui.