It was so close that within three minutes I was home. I stopped in the corridor to catch my breath; I was trying to forget the dead body, pale and deformed, and everything else I haven’t said so as not to give a repugnant aspect to these pages, but you can imagine it. I put everything out of my mind in a few seconds; all I needed to do was to think about the other house, about life and Capitu’s fresh, lively face … Love, my lads! And above all, love pretty, charming girls; they are the remedy for evil, they give a sweet smell to rottenness, they exchange life for death … Love, my lads!