The idea of death, blurted out in despair between a couple of kisses, returned implacable and keen. - Émile Zola

He had devoured her, the strapping creature, tall and handsome, that she once had been, eating into her much as an insect eats into an oak, till here she was for ever on her back, reduced to nothingness, whereas he was still going.

"When sometimes, behind his back, they called him a tyrant, he merely smiled and uttered this profound observation: "If some day I turn liberal, they will say I have let them down.

Both women, looking different ways, kept shrugging their shoulders, and asking themselves how the deuce the other could tell such woppers!