“She had fallen asleep with her head on her lover's knees. He looked at her and smiled. An expression of pity and benevolence flitted across his face. His hands stretched out part way toward the sleeping woman with the gentleness of strength. I saw the glorious pride of condescension and charity in this man whom a woman prostrate before him deified.”

—  Henri Barbusse

The Inferno (1917), Ch. XVI

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Henri Barbusse197
French novelist 1873–1935

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