En descendant l’escalier tournant de ce taudis infâme, Fabrice était plein de componction : « Je ne suis point changé, se disait-il ; toutes mes belles résolutions prises au bord de notre lac quand je voyais la vie d’un œil si philosophique se sont envolées.
As he made his way down the winding staircase of this foul rookery, Fabrizio was filled with compunction. "I have not altered in the least," he said to himself; "all the fine resolutions I made on the shore of our lake, when I looked at life with so philosophic an eye, have gone to the winds.