‘AH, L’AMOUR, L’AMOUR! AH, QUE LES FEMMES
M’ONT TUE! Alas, MESSIEURS ET DAMES, women have
been my ruin, beyond all hope my ruin. At twenty-two I
am utterly worn out and finished. But what things I have
learned, what abysses of wisdom have I not plumbed! How
great a thing it is to have acquired the true wisdom, to have
become in the highest sense of the word a civilized man, to
have become RAFFINE, VICIEUX,’ etc. etc.