Une pareille idée que j’aurais au sujet d’un parfait inconnu me mettrait au désespoir, jugez de ce que j’éprouve quand je viens à me figurer qu’un ami, dont la déraison me donne de graves sujets de plaintes, mais qu’enfin je vois tous les jours depuis si longtemps, est en proie dans ce moment même aux douleurs de la mort.
So long as you are in prison, I have frightful and unreasonable moments; never in my life have I contributed to anyone's hurt, and I feel that I am to be the cause of your death. Such an idea in the case of a complete stranger would fill me with despair; judge of what I feel when I picture to myself that a friend, whose unreasonableness gives me serious cause for complaint, but whom, after all, I have been seeing every day for so long, is at this very moment a victim to the pangs of death.