Strait is the Gate

狭き門

[Juliette] What are you waiting for to marry?

[Jerome] To have forgotten a great many things.

[Juliette] Which you are hoping to forget soon?

[Jerome] Which I do not hope ever to forget.


[Juliette] If I understood you rightly it is to Alissa’s memory that you mean to remain faithful.

[Jerome] Rather, perhaps, to her idea of me. No, don’t give me any credit for it. I think I couldn’t do otherwise. If I married another woman, I could only pretend to love her.


[Juliette] Then you think that one can keep a hopeless love in one’s heart for so long as that?

[Jerome] Yes, Juliette.

[Juliette] And that life can breathe upon it every day, without extinguishing it?


“Come!” said she at last: “we must wake up.” I saw her rise, take a step forward, drop again, as though she had no strength, into the nearest chair; she put her hands up to her face and I thought I saw that she was crying. A servant came in, bringing the lamp.