"You are my Lucy, who again crosses my path; I knew it from the first, and for a long while I have been searching my feelings, analysing my will, and I have arrived at one certainty--that I love you, Sagrario." The young woman made a gesture of surprise, drawing further from him.
"Do not draw away, do not fear me.

I am a feeble man, you are a weak woman; you have suffered much, and have bid good-bye to the joys of the earth, but you are strong through misfortune and can look the truth in the face.

We are both wrecks of life, and the only hope left us is to wait and die quietly in the desert island which is our refuge.

We are undone, rent and swept away; Death has laid his hand upon us; we are fallen and shapeless rags after having passed through the mills of an absurd society.

For this reason I love you, because you are my equal in misfortune; elective affinity unites us.