P. S. Besides, you should know that he is not a nobody. Monsieur Renaudeau is going to publish his drama--so moving, so full of genius. He told me this the other evening, at the home of the countess. And this despite you and your gentle contempt, despite you who disparaged him,--without knowing him! After all cui bono.... After all, after all! CHAPTER XL ULTIMATE PEACE "Muchas vezes, Senor mio, considero que si con algo se puede sustentar el virvir sin vos, es en la soledad, porque descansa el alma con su descanso." Sainte Theresa, _Exclamations of the Soul to its God_. "I was mistaken," Hubert reflected, upon awaking. "This letter is full of interest, but I do not understand this need of railing at me in six small pages. And then to repeat at each line: 'If you had known, if you had been able!' Has she climbed on the stilts of her happiness! Yes, she is happy because a male has thrown himself at her and has nailed her on the cross. Ah! it will be necessary to rise, to carry it, to bend under the burden. Ah! it will bear you down and your lover will mount upwards and stamp his foot on you, for this retaliation is due you. "Oh! I am not thirsty for vengeance and I do not desire to quench my thirst in the blood which will flow from your severed veins: I do not even wish to see you and I shut you out from my imagination. "Only.... Ah! the wretch! She does not seem to suspect that I loved her! Everything, under the shelter of passional metaphysics, amounted to a question of adroit and decisive shrewdness. Yes, love is joiner's work.