That He lived chaste I accept, which was all the more reason why He understood the metaphysical side of love. That He is God, that, too, I accept; therefore I see in the Incarnation a marriage with matter, an alliance with woman, and that leaves me no doubts about the divine thought. So do not mock me when I tell you that Jesus understood love better than anyone else. Note His behaviour with the woman taken in adultery, with the Samaritan woman, with Mary and Martha, with Mary Magdalene, the parable of the labourers at the twelfth hour, so sublime and so profound! All that Jesus does and says and thinks is intended to show us that love is greater in its cause than in its object and that it overlooks human imperfections. The more culpable, feeble and unworthy men are of this generous love, the more it strives to envelop them in its ardent embrace.”

“You are describing Christian charity.”

“Well, isn’t love, great, real love, Christian charity applied and as it were concentrated in a single being?”

“That’s Utopia. Love is the most selfish of feelings and the most incompatible with Christian charity.”

“That is your love, such as you have made it, miserable men!” cried Lucrezia passionately. “But the love which God gave us, the kind which, fresh and pure, should have passed from Him to us, the kind which I understand, which I have dreamed of and sought, the love which I thought I had grasped and possessed once or twice in my life, – alas, it lasted the space of a dream and a startled awakening – the kind which I shall believe in as a religion, although I may be its only adept, and I have died in the pain of its pursuit … that is the kind which is patterned on the love which Jesus Christ felt and manifested to mankind. It is a gleam of the divine charity, it obeys the same laws; it is calm, mild, and just, with those who are just It is restless, ardent, impetuous, in a word, passionate, only for sinners. When you see a man and wife loving one another tenderly and faithfully, you can say that that is friendship. But when you, a decent man, will feel yourself madly enamoured of a wretched courtesan, you may be sure that that, too, is love, and do not blush for it! That is how Christ loved those who were unworthy of Him.

“And that is how I loved Tealdo Soavi. I knew quite well that he was selfish, vain, ambitious and ungrateful, but I was madly in love with him. When I learned that he was vile I cursed him, but I still loved him. I wept over him with a bitterness so great that since that time I have lost the faculty of loving any other man. It seemed as if I found consolation very quickly, and now I certainly am consoled; but the blow was so violent, the wound so deep that I shall never love again.”

Madame Floriani wiped away a tear which fell slowly down her pale cheek. Her face expressed no pain, but there was something terrifying about her stillness.

9.

“So it was because of a scoundrel that you were unable to love a decent man?” said Salvator, deeply moved “You are a strange woman, Lucrezia.”

“Well, why did this man need my love?” she retorted “Wasn’t he sufficiently happy in himself, knowing that he was sensible, well balanced, at peace with his conscience and the world? He asked for my friendship and offered me in return a loyal and long devotion. He had my friendship and was not satisfied with it He demanded passion; he was asking for turmoil and torment It was not in my power to make myself unhappy on his account And he could not forgive me for wishing to make him happy.”

“Those are paradoxes indeed ! They terrify me. What you say is very beautiful, but difficult to summarise. You say that love is generous, sublime and divine. Christ Himself taught it to us indirectly by teaching us charity. It is compassion driven to transcendence, devotion driven to ecstasy. Consequently it only happens to noble hearts. And thus such hearts are condemned to hell for the whole of this life, since they only burn with this sacred fire for the wicked and the ungrateful.”

“Yes, that is just how it is,” sighed Madame Floriani. “The riddle of life has no other solution. It is sacrifice, suffering and weariness; sacrifice in youth, suffering in the prime of life, weariness in old age.”

“Consequently good persons will not know the happiness of being loved?”

“No, as long as this world will not change, and with it the human heart. If Jesus returns one day, as He promised, I hope He will give gentler laws to a new race of men, which will be better than ours.”

“So, no requited love, no pure intoxication for the generations of the present?”

“No, no, and again, no.”

“You frighten me, you soul in despair!”

“The fact is that you wish to see happiness in love. It is not there. Happiness means tranquillity and friendship; love is storm and conflict”

“Well, let me define another kind of love: friendship, that is tranquillity combined with sensual pleasure – that is to say, enjoyment and happiness.”

“Yes, that is the ideal of marriage. I have not known it, although I have dreamed of it and pursued it”

“And because you do not know it, do you deny its existence?’’

“Salvator, have you ever known two lovers or two married people who loved one another absolutely in the same manner? – with the same strength or the same calmness?”

“I don’t know … I don’t think so.”

“I am sure not. As soon as passion seizes one of the two (and that is inevitable) the other grows cool, suffering comes and happiness is disturbed, if not completely lost In youth one tries to find love; in maturity love is accompanied by torture; in old age one tries to love, but love has gone.”

“Well, when you have reached a mature age, you will get married, I can see that You will make a gentle and understanding marriage based on reason and you will be happy in conjugal love. That is your dream, isn’t it?”

“No, Salvator.