Why was this assurance of safety heavier than a burden of fear, and why the day that began presented itself obstinately like the last day of all—­like a to-day without a to-morrow?  Yet nothing was changed, for nobody would know; and all would go on as before—­the getting, the enjoying, the blessing of hunger that is appeased every day; the noble incentives of unappeasable ambitions.  All—­all the blessings of life.  All—­but the certitude immaterial and precious—­the certitude of love and faith.  He believed the shadow of it had been with him as long as he could remember; that invisible presence had ruled his life.  And now the shadow had appeared and faded he could not extinguish his longing for the truth of its substance.  His desire of it was naive; it was masterful like the material aspirations that are the groundwork of existence, but, unlike these, it was unconquerable.  It was the subtle despotism of an idea that suffers no rivals, that is lonely, inconsolable, and dangerous.  He went slowly up the stairs.  Nobody shall know.  The days would go on and he would go far—­very far.  If the idea could not be mastered, fortune could be, man could be—­the whole world.  He was dazzled by the greatness of the prospect; the brutality of a practical instinct shouted to him that only that which could be had was worth having.  He lingered on the steps.  The lights were out in the hall, and a small yellow flame flitted about down there.  He felt a sudden contempt for himself which braced him up.  He went on, but at the door of their room and with his arm advanced to open it, he faltered.  On the flight of stairs below the head of the girl who had been locking up appeared.  His arm fell.  He thought, “I’ll wait till she is gone”—­and stepped back within the perpendicular folds of a portiere.

He saw her come up gradually, as if ascending from a well.  At every step the feeble flame of the candle swayed before her tired, young face, and the darkness of the hall seemed to cling to her black skirt, followed her, rising like a silent flood, as though the great night of the world had broken through the discreet reserve of walls, of closed doors, of curtained windows.  It rose over the steps, it leaped up the walls like an angry wave, it flowed over the blue skies, over the yellow sands, over the sunshine of landscapes, and over the pretty pathos of ragged innocence and of meek starvation.  It swallowed up the delicious idyll in a boat and the mutilated immortality of famous bas-reliefs.  It flowed from outside—­it rose higher, in a destructive silence.  And, above it, the woman of marble, composed and blind on the high pedestal, seemed to ward off the devouring night with a cluster of lights.

He watched the rising tide of impenetrable gloom with impatience, as if anxious for the coming of a darkness black enough to conceal a shameful surrender.  It came nearer.  The cluster of lights went out.  The girl ascended facing him.  Behind her the shadow of a colossal woman danced lightly on the wall.  He held his breath while she passed by, noiseless and with heavy eyelids.  And on her track the flowing tide of a tenebrous sea filled the house, seemed to swirl about his feet, and rising unchecked, closed silently above his head.