A novel is a mirror walking along a main road. - Stendhal

In another moment she had torn herself from his arms, lighted the candle, and Julien had all the difficulty in the world in preventing her from cutting off all one side of her hair. “I wish to remind myself,” she told him, “that I am your servant: should my accursed pride ever make me forget it, show me these locks and say: “There is no question now of love, we are not concerned with the emotion that your heart may be feeling at this moment, you have sworn to obey, obey upon your honour.

Feminine delicacy was carried to excess in Mme de Renal.

Je ne vois qu'une règle: être clair. Si je ne suis pas clair, tout mon monde est anéanti.