"After all," said she, "I am a great fool to quarrel with you about this
money. You will succeed in getting hold of it and squandering it, one
day or another. I may just as well give it you at once."
She did not seek to conceal her defeat any further. She seated herself
at the counter, and signed a cheque for 5,000 francs, which Laurent was
to present to her banker. There was no more question of the commissary
of police that evening.
As soon as Laurent had the gold in his pocket, he began to lead a
riotous life, drinking to excess, and frequenting women of ill-repute.
He slept all day and stayed out all night, in search of violent emotions
that would relieve him of reality. But he only succeeded in becoming
more oppressed than before. When the company were shouting around
him, he heard the great, terrible silence within him; when one of his
ladyloves kissed him, when he drained his glass, he found naught at the
bottom of his satiety, but heavy sadness.
He was no longer a man for lust and gluttony. His chilled being, as
if inwardly rigid, became enervated at the kisses and feasts. Feeling
disgusted beforehand, they failed to arouse his imagination or to excite
his senses and stomach.
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