In point of fact, despite this deftly chiseled remark, his inner exertion had already passed its peak at the moment when he had been tempted to contain in a small earthly lamp the light that had been filling him; and when it turned out now that this had been a mistake, his thought already lacked the will to attempt a decision, and he readily let himself be distracted. Two men had just bumped into each other near him and were shouting unpleasant remarks at each other as if preparing for a fight, a spectacle he followed with refreshed attention, and no sooner had he turned away from it than his glance collided with that of a woman whose gaze met his like a fat flower nodding on its stem. In that pleasant mood that is an equal blend of emotion and extroverted attention, he took note of the fact that, among real people, the ideal obligation to love one’s neighbor is obeyed in two parts, the first consisting in not being able to stand the human race, and the second in compensating for that by engaging in sexual relations with one half of it. Without stopping to reflect, he turned after a few steps to follow the woman; it was still a mechanical consequence of being touched by her glance. He saw her figure beneath the dress like a large white fish near the surface of the water. He felt the masculine wish to harpoon it and see it flap and flail, and there was as much aversion in this as desire. Some barely perceptible signs made him certain this woman knew he was prowling after her and did not object. He tried to determine her place on the social scale and guessed at the upper reaches of the middle class, where it is difficult to define the exact position. “Merchant’s family? Civil servants?” he wondered. But several images arbitrarily obtruded, among them that of a pharmacy: he felt the pungently sweet smell of the husband coming home; the compact atmosphere of the home itself betraying no sign of the quick darting beam of an intruder’s flashlight that had only recently moved through it. The thought was without question repugnant, and yet dishonorably enticing.