"What! can this be love!" she kept asking herself, "could I have fallen in love! I, a married woman, in love! But," she said to herself, "I have never felt this somber passion for my husband that makes it impossible for me to take my mind off Julien. Really, he's nothing but a child full of respect for me! This madness will pass. Whatever my feelings about this young man may be, what dif- ference does it make to my husband! M. de Renal would be bored with the conversations I have with Julien about things of the imagination. He has nothing on his mind but business. I'm not taking anything from him to give to Julien."

No hypocritical thought came to debase the purity of this simple soul, led astray by a passion it had never known before. She was deluding herself, though unawares, and yet a virtuous instinct had been startled. [...]