Finally, feeling completely safe, he came closer to her and said, "You spoke of remorse, but whether we embark or whether we stand on the bank, isn't our guilt exactly the same ?" "Yes, I know.

My confessor talks to me like that--only more severely--but I think you are both wrong." He could not help laughing, and he said to himself, "Remorse is perhaps the condiment which keeps passion from being too unappetizing to the blase." Then aloud he jestingly, "Speaking of confessors, if I were a casuist it seems to me I would try to invent new sins.

I am not a casuist, and yet, having looked about a bit, I believe I _have_ found a new sin." "You ?" she said, laughing in turn.

"Can I commit it ?" He scrutinized her features.

She had the expression of a greedy child.
"You alone can answer that.