Original subtitles

I'd like to speak to the principal please.

Sorry, there's no one here.

The school doesn't open till tomorrow.

Well, if you don't mind.

You see, I was driving through the neighbourhood

and wanted to know if I could visit the school.

Yes, but... I'm a former student.

I was here about 20 years ago.

But the school is empty.

That's all right.

I'll speak to the ghosts.

I'm sorry.

I had wandered away from the others toward the lavatories.

The sound of Baudelaire was still in my ears.

I went in.

An odour, halfway between the chemical smell of a candy factory and that of

school disinfectant, hung inside the cubicle.

A vapour rose from the seat.

The vapour of tenderness given off by a mass of flaxen hair.

I leaned over the bowl.

The sleeping water gave me a reflection of my face before the creation of the world.

Where are Thérèse and Isabelle?

I don't know.

Shall I go and look for them?

No, you stay here. I'll send someone else.

Thérèse.

Thérèse.

Open up.

It's me.

I was so afraid you wouldn't come.

I said I would.

Did anyone see you?

I don't think so.

I couldn't.

Let me look at you.

You're so lovely.

Hug me till I can't breathe.

Recess will be over in a few minutes and we've hardly been together.

Let me hug you.

You don't know how.

Teach me.

Teach me.

Thérèse! - Isabelle!

Say it.

I'm afraid to.

I want to hear it.

I want to hear you say it.

Say it.

I can't yet.

If that's how it is, I'm going.

No, please.

Don't, please.

It's so stupid.

A minute ago we were so close and now... And now we aren't.

I can't stand it if you sulk.

I'm not sulking.

Then say something.

Kiss me?

No.

On the mouth.

It's too soon.

I hate you.

You're just torturing me.

Why did you come here at all?

Why?

Why did you?

Well, here we are.

Please, Mama, don't do this to me.

Don't be a child.

After all, this is a school, not a prison.

But I want to stay home.

I want to be with you.

I promise.

Your mother knows what's best for you.

Please, try to understand.

As soon as your stepfather and I have had a

chance to settle down, you can come back to us.

It'll only be for a few months, maybe.

One day you'll realize how unfairly you're acting.

We've got a right to live, too.

Please, Mama.

I know why you did this.

But we don't need him or his money.

We'll get along somehow.

Your mother married me because she loves me.

Don't say that.

It's not true.

She never could love anyone but my father, never,

and you could never take his place.

Oh, no?

Well, I already have.

I can't stand it when you fight.

Isabelle?

Isabelle?

Yes?

We've been looking for you, Isabelle.

You stay here.

Yes.

Well, what took you so long?

I was feeling unwell.

Is there anyone with you?

Of course not.

There's only room for one.

Well, I'll believe you this time.

Now get back to your class.

Recreation is over.

Ah, you are the new student, aren't you?

I am Mademoiselle Germaine, the headmistress.

I do hope that you will be very happy here.

Now, if you come with me, I'll show you to your room, Mademoiselle.

This is your room.

The monitor's room is at the end of the dormitory.

I know the rooms look austere at first, but you will learn to love yours as a monk

comes to love his cell.

It will be your world.

And no one, you understand, no one except the

monitor has a right to violate your privacy.

The doorways are as inviolable as the walls of a fortress.

Classes will soon be over.

You can wait here till it's time for dinner.

I'll see you again tomorrow.

We'll be back Monday.

You won't be too lonely.

It's only natural for a man to want to get to know his future wife better.

Well, don't you think so?

Try a marriage.

You think that's very sophisticated, but why shouldn't I make my life over again?

I'm not cheating on your father, though that's what you believe.

I was a faithful wife all the years we were together.

I can talk to you frankly.

Don't worry.

No matter what happens, you'll always stay with me.

Always, Thérèse.

Always.

You must trust me.

We'll always be together.

Always.

Always.

It's a wonderful party, isn't it?

Incredible.

And getting married at first.

All right!

Thank you for coming.

It was a great day for you.

Congratulations.

Won't you come in?

Thérèse!

Thérèse!

That is your name, isn't it?

Yes.

Mademoiselle Germaine asked me to help you get settled.

Are your things unpacked?

No.

What a boring job.

How beautiful.

Yes, a gift from my mother.

She got it from my father.

I hope my husband buys me such lovely things.

He was just my father, not her husband.

I see.

Did Mademoiselle Germaine recite the school credo for you?

You will learn to love your room as a monk comes to love his cell.

My ass.

Congratulations.

Must you show your new schoolmate you have such a limited vocabulary.

You will go to the study hall instead of recreation tomorrow.

Please, madame, I didn't mean to... That's enough.

If you want to do well here, you'd better not pick up such bad habits.

I'm sorry if I got you into trouble.

That's all right.

I had homework to do anyway.

Let's finish your unpacking.

My name is Isabelle.

Thérèse, would you please close the door?

And now take your place.

And now for today's lesson.

We shall continue our study of the various parts of the flower.

We said that the sap rises from the roots through the stalk and continues to the

leaves and the flowers, and generally speaking, throughout the plant,

just as blood circulates through the body.

In our previous lessons, we studied in particular the leaves, their structure and

function, and the role that light plays in the production of chlorophyll.

So we have reviewed the entire history of the growth

and nutrition of the plant from the root cells.

Today, however, we shall study more specifically the sepals and petals,

that is, the calyx and the corolla.

Thérèse.

The chart's in front of the classroom, not over there in the back.

Now, as I was saying, we shall study more specifically the sepals and the petals.

Are you coming?

Uh-huh.

Hello, Mademoiselle Leblanc.

Hello.

How are you getting along?

Oh, pretty well.

If I don't fail, I'll pass.

I see.

I realize it's not easy to get adjusted to new surroundings, even these.

The school is beautiful.

It was built with love.

You can't say the same of houses today.

We have to live in them nevertheless.

Thérèse!

Come on!

Oh, excuse me.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Thérèse!

Thérèse!

I love riding.

It makes me feel so free.

I never rode much.

My mother always thought that it was too dangerous.

Do you have any brothers or sisters?

No, no one.

Just my mother.

And your father?

He died.

Oh, I'm sorry.

My mother replaced him.

Mine's divorced.

My father's not dead, but I never see him.

So it's almost the same thing.

The speciality here is bad coffee.

Do you want it or don't you?

Yes, and hot preferably.

Everybody comes here after school.

Hello, Isabelle.

They shouldn't allow girls like you on bicycles.

You're a public girl.

Aren't all girls to you?

Anyway, if you wanted to pass, you should have honked.

Very funny.

I haven't seen you before.

I'm Pierre Maurice.

Thérèse.

I'm very pleased to meet you.

Thérèse is a new girl.

The poor girl.

She looks like she deserves better.

Well, let's have a drink.

No.

Today we have to talk about something private.

Selfish.

Couldn't I tear you away from this unsocial creature?

Maybe some other time.

All right.

But I leave you rejected and crushed.

And if I start stuttering, it'll be your fault.

Understand?

He's one of the nicest boys in town.

He's at the college down the street.

Have you ever been out with him?

Yes.

Once.

But I stopped.

Why?

I just decided he wasn't for me.

Why wasn't he?

He just wasn't.

Do you... have you another boyfriend?

Can't you change the subject?

He asks too much from a girl.

And too often.

Here's your coffee.

It's about time.

Fine.

I'm sorry I snapped at you.

But there are certain things I don't like to talk about.

To anyone.

If you can't talk to me, what good is it being friends?

You're right.

No more secrets.

Cheers.

Cheers.

Let's go.

Bye.

My mother had remarried.

We were cut off from one another.

She had married without ever being engaged.

How long would we be separated?

Did she ever think of me?

Lying next to her new husband while he made love to her?

I pleaded with her, don't get married.

Don't get married.

I'd been so warm in her bed.

She used to call me her little rogue.

She used to say, come and make a nest in my arms.

Now she had a bigger bed.

And didn't give me her arms anymore.

A man was there between us.

I no longer slept in her bedroom.

There's no one on earth but you.

There's no one on earth I love but you, she told me.

But she had someone else.

A man was there between us.

I didn't belong to my mother anymore.

Hello, Thérèse.

Welcome to the library.

I couldn't fall asleep.

Here. This ought to do it.

No, I'm too nervous to read.

Can't you tell me what it is?

This school's such a lonely place.

We all feel that way at first.

I never wanted to come here.

I wanted to...

You can suffer here as well as anywhere else.

Nothing is so tragic.

I'm so glad you're here.

I know how you feel.

Thank you.

And now get back to bed.

I want to finish my short speech.

I just reached the point where the heroine is pregnant.

It's obvious she didn't go to this school.

Let's go.

We'll meet some boys there. Would you like to join in?

I'm not sure.

I may be busy.

Say, anybody I know?

It's a secret.

Ooh.

Thérèse?

You want to play ball?

No, I'm going inside.

What are you doing here?

I've been looking for you.

Nothing.

I just felt like being alone.

Does alone mean without me?

No.

I meant not with the others.

I just read this. I wanted you to hear it.

It's by Baudelaire.

My sister, my child, Ought to be exiled with you in some faraway country,

Loving forever, dying together, In a land of your tantalizing beauty.

There all is luxurious, languorous, Sensuous, voluptuous.

A golden bed, silks fiery red, Would decorate our room.

The rarest flowers, Breathing enchanted

hours, Would intoxicate us with their perfume.

The mirrored ceiling, Boldly revealing the oriental splendour.

Cheek upon cheek we would speak Ardent words of surrender.

There all is luxurious, languorous, Sensuous, voluptuous.

The slumbering ships on those canals Stand ready to receive your commands,

To obey your wishes, To fulfil your desires.

They have come from distant lands.

The setting sun wraps the fields in a robe of radiant light.

All high suns and gold, Under the warm canopy of night.

There all is luxurious, languorous,

Sensuous, voluptuous.

There all is luxurious, languorous, Sensuous, voluptuous.

I wish...

I wish we could be alone...

Where?

In the washroom during recess.

I meet you there.

Isabelle Yes.

Is there any one with you?

You stay here.

It's terrific.

I bet you've never seen anything like this.

Go and take a look.

Look, she's seen it.

Give it back to me.

Come on, let me see yours.

No, after your next birthday.

Have you seen Isabelle?

No, not this morning.

She left on the early train.

She goes home every Saturday.

All the second year students do.

What are you doing tonight?

Nothing.

What about your date?

It fell through.

Would you like to come to town with us?

Maybe.

If you stay here, you'll be all alone.

I've got my bike.

It's late.

We ought to get going now.

Hello, Thierry.

Hello.

How are you?

Hello.

How do you do?

Over here.

What do you have?

Coffee. Hot, preferably.

You're beginning to talk like a regular customer.

And the minute he said that, I left him there. - Oh, yes.

I told him I never wanted to see him again.

How are you?

This time you're trapped.

Where's the fair, Isabelle?

She went home.

Oh...

I'm sorry to hear that.

This calls for a celebration.

One more and two brandies.

You're so quiet.

Tell me all about yourself.

You ask me that... as if you already knew the answer.

I usually do, but this time I admit defeat.

There's something about you that's...

impenetrable.

I think trying to know someone like you must be impossible.

Really?

You never say anything you mean.

It makes it difficult.

Why?

You're not sincere for a moment.

Since when is sincerity the road to...

to friendship?

You see, can't you be yourself for once?

I could be myself.

But I might not like the result.

But someone else might...

I'm sorry we got off to a wrong start.

I wish I could take back everything I've said up to this moment.

Thank you.

I know what.

We can begin over tonight.

We'll go out somewhere together.

You'll come as you.

And I'll come as the new me.

Fair enough?

Fair enough.

You've changed already.

Here's the latest equipment.

Let's walk over there.

Hi, Pierre. - Hello.

Hey, Pierre.

Do you have a cigarette?

Sure.

Here.

Thanks.

Are you glad you came here?

Yes. Very.

I wish we could be together all day long and every day.

I wish you hadn't said that.

Why?

Because, as usual... you didn't mean it.

I'm sorry.

But I really like you.

I like you, too.

But I think you've got the wrong idea about me.

Is that why you brought me here?

No.

And I'm being honest with you.

Even if you think it's for the first time.

No!

What is it?

Don't you like the way I kiss?

Yes.

I do.

But...

But what?

I don't know.

I can't explain it.

Are you afraid?

No.

This looks like a nice place.

Come here!

I'm glad you came.

What a surprise!

Mama! - You look wonderful.

We thought you might be lonely this Sunday,

so we decided to come and have lunch with you.

It was your stepfather's idea.

Hello, Thérèse.

Hello.

There, let's go now.

We reserved a table at a wonderful restaurant.

I'll sit in the back.

Are you hungry?

Oh, yes.

Good, because I'm starving.

The owner gets mad if you're late.

He says rude clients spoil the broth.

Not too many cooks.

Very good, Monsieur.

Waiter.

Did you see that funny hat?

Now, this place is a three-star restaurant.

Which means they add three zeros to the bill.

Now, tell us about your school.

Oh, the buildings are very interesting, historically and architecturally.

It's almost like going to school in a museum.

You know what they say about finishing schools for girls.

That when they come out, they're finished as girls.

I hope that doesn't apply to me, Monsieur.

Don't keep saying Monsieur.

Call me Father.

Go on!

Say it!

All right.

Do you like your teachers?

Oh, yes. Most of them.

The music teacher says that if I can learn to play Tchaikovsky's waltz in two years,

it'll be the greatest musical achievement of her life.

and you'll be the world's oldest child prodigy.

Did you make any friends?

A few.

There's this one girl, especially.

What's your friend's name?

Isabelle.

Do you have any boyfriends?

I see we're just annoying her with our questions.

Maybe she'd rather enjoy her food and not talk, right?

No, I don't mind talking.

It's good being with you again.

Yes, it's wonderful.

I miss cleaning up after you all day long.

The school has made a new girl of me.

This summer, I promise to be a model of neatness.

This summer, we're planning a cruise on the Mediterranean.

Wow! When are we leaving?

Well, actually, we're thinking of it as a sort of second honeymoon.

We didn't think you'd mind.

That means you're going alone.

It'll only be for eight weeks.

Yes, actually, there's a change in our itinerary.

We're bypassing Gibraltar and going directly to Algiers.

From there, we'll sail to Palermo.

We'll spend a few days there at the Albergo, where one of my friends is a manager.

And from there, we'll sail to the coast.

Excuse me.

I have to go back to school now.

I have an exam tomorrow.

And I'm not really prepared.

Thérèse!

Hey, will you be around tomorrow?

Thérèse, come to the front of the class.

Do you know your equation for today?

Yes, madame.

Then write it on the blackboard.

Mademoiselle, would you please finish the equation?

Excuse me, mademoiselle Leblanc.

Isabelle's just arrived.

Oh, thank you.

Thérèse, could you help me figure this out?

Yes, of course.

Four plus X.

Isabelle.

Well, come on. Finish it.

Hi.

Isabelle.

Why are you so late?

I missed the train.

That's strange for someone so anxious to get to class.

Anyway, you missed that one.

Fix your uniform.

No, do it now.

I missed you. - I missed you too.

Come close, you're too far away.

Let me do it.

I might get caught.

Someone may come in.

I don't care.

I tore at her uniform and crushed the hairs beneath.

The blood rose into my cheeks, into my throat.

Her hand was making it difficult for me to breathe.

I was sobbing without a sound, without tears.

Isabelle was sobbing too, as she pressed her hand against my uniform.

I dug her neck into my teeth.

Her lips tried to find mine in my hair, in my neck, in the floor.

The folds of my uniform.

I pushed her against the floor.

I nailed her hands against it with the palms of mine.

I hugged her with all the strength of my repentance.

I breathed her in.

I pulled her tight against my belly and made a loincloth for myself.

She was melting my ankles and knees into delicious decay.

I burst with warmth like a fruit.

I was running with the same liquid sweetness.

There were pincers softly tearing at me, all so softly.

I was following everything inside her.

I could see with my inner eyes the light in her flesh.

In my head I had a Thérèse with opened legs, straining up to the sky,

who was receiving all that I was giving.

We hugged to our hearts all the Thérèse's and Isabelle's

who would make love to one another later, with other names.

We rolled intertwined down a slope of shadows.

We held our breath so that life and death should come to a halt.

I stormed her mouth as one storms a beleaked city.

I was hoping to plunder and destroy both her entrails and my own.

Isabelle cried in panic.

I persevered.

Isabelle called for help.

It's coming upwards,

in my legs, in my knees.

Coming higher.

And higher.

Tell me.

Tell me.

I love you.

Again.

I love you.

Again.

I love you.

This used to be the chapel.

It was built in the 13th century.

The students still use it on occasion for their dramatic productions.

It's very interesting. - Yes, indeed.

It's beautiful.

Good night, Nicole.

Good night.

Lights out!

I thought you'd never come.

I was afraid of the monitor.

Come into bed.

But what if the monitor comes back again?

She never does. Come on.

I feel happy here with you.

Me too.

If they find us together like this, we'll be expelled.

It doesn't matter.

The school can burn down for all I care.

But then we'll be separated.

They'll never separate us.

Never.

Never.

I want to look at you.

Her face was travelling all over me.

Her face was exploring me.

There were lips seeing and touching what I would never see.

I was humiliated for her.

Indispensable and ignored.

That's what I was with my face so far from Isabelle's.

A saint was licking away my soils.

She applied herself with such concentration

that suddenly everything became unreal.

I thought how much I wanted to give her what she was giving me.

The mind focused on her tongue.

I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing from her point of view.

But if the pearl slipped away from her, she found it again.

She was silent, intent on her own sensations.

I was receiving what she was receiving.

It was Isabelle's.

Her efforts, her rhythms were exciting me.

Pearl was what she wanted.

She was discovering the little male organ all of us have.

Eunuch taking heart again.

I felt stigmata open my entrails.

Gripped Isabelle with the scissor movement of my legs.

She became short of saliva.

She created more.

Suddenly, three fingers entered me.

Three guests for the pleasure to cling to.

I had a maddening eel battering itself to death against my inner walls.

My eyes heard.

My ears saw.

Isabelle was injecting me with her own brutality.

The rubbing was burning and painful.

My limitations were even more painful still.

The stubborn finger awakened my flesh.

Each of its blows made my pleasure sharper than before.

I drew it into myself.

I forced it out again.

I transformed it into the sex of a dog, red and naked.

There was a maddened sun whirling through my flesh.

My calves were ripening now that they had drunk their fill.

It was wholly softened into ineffable decay.

My tongue went searching through a salty blackness,

through clinging darkness over the most delicate of meat.

The more I applied myself, the more mysterious my efforts became.

I hesitated around the pearl.

The vase gave me back reflections of the flanks and caresses of other couples.

I took her legs in my arms and stroked it with my chin.

My cheeks.

I was a violinist caressing a bow.

The vase let me watch what I was doing.

In the vase, I could still see her hands clasped over her fleece,

and I experienced a wave of solitary pleasure.

I kissed her knee.

I tried to tear myself away from the vase,

from that sex, that entrance to such sweet depths.

But it continued to draw me toward it,

to call me back for further solitary caresses.

I stroked Isabelle's secret lips and hair with her finger.

I felt the burden of pleasure lying heavy on the back of my neck.

I plunged into her sex.

I would have preferred it to be less complicated.

I felt almost a desire to sew it up here and there.

I loved it as it devoured me.

I worshipped it with wide-open eyes.

Isabelle sat up on the pillow and crossed her legs.

My face plunged once more into the holy image.

I licked, then I stopped a while to rest.

But resting was a sin.

I began once again where I had left off.

A cat washing itself.

A cat pressing down and rubbing blindly away with its tongue.

I caressed the sex that I was watching in the vase.

The fleece was no longer shining.

It had faded into a pensive mood.

The night would soon be leaving us.

I wish I could tell you.

Don't try.

What are you thinking of?

Nothing.

I wish...

we could run away.

I have no money.

Neither have I.

Let's sell everything we have.

We won't die of hunger.

We can't run away.

This is where we have to be.

It'll be morning soon.

Who taught you?

I've always known.

Someone's coming. Be quiet.

It's no one.

What frightens me most is losing you.

If I died tomorrow,

would you go on living?

Answer!

I couldn't live without you.

But then I wish we could die together.

I'd better go.

Let me fix your hair first.

Go now.

But be careful.

One of the girls might be up already.

I've never been so happy.

Good night.

You never understand how to solve these problems.

Hey.

Hey, Isabelle.

How come you weren't in class yesterday?

It's none of your business.

Someone saw you coming out of the chapel with Thérèse.

So what?

Just crossed there to go to the library.

Anyway, who told you I wasn't in class?

Mademoiselle Leblanc.

Oh, yes.

And maybe it's you who told Mademoiselle Leblanc I wasn't in class.

And maybe it's you who told her I got back late Monday.

You little bitch.

Who are you calling a little bitch?

Why?

What happened?

Did it hurt?

No, no.

It was the truck that came.

Did you see it?

How do you feel, Thérèse?

Oh, I think I'm all right.

Are you sure?

You look terribly pale.

I think you'd better go and see the doctor.

Oh, wait.

Who volunteers to take her to the doctor?

Well, who volunteers?

Oh, Isabelle.

Take her into town.

You'd better leave right away.

And please be careful.

All right.

Please, girls.

It's all over now.

You'd better get going.

You'll be late for class.

How did it happen?

Didn't you see her?

All of a sudden, I heard some girls yelling.

I stopped right away and saw them running up in my direction.

Let me go.

Are you all right?

Well, as far as I can see, there's nothing wrong with you.

You'll get over the shock in a couple of days.

Here's some sleeping pills.

And if you don't feel better, come back and see me.

I'll send the report to Mademoiselle Germaine.

Shall I call a taxi to take you back to school?

I think we'll walk and get some fresh air.

Goodbye.

Are you glad you're here?

Uh huh.

We still have some time before we have to get back.

Where shall we go?

I don't know.

You can see that across the street.

Hey, help a friend.

I'm a poor starving artist.

I know.

I have an address.

What address?

For the two of us, where we can be alone.

Wouldn't you like that?

Where is it?

It's a hotel.

But not exactly a hotel.

It's a house.

Don't you want to?

I'm not sure what it is.

Why?

It's a house with a lady who rents rooms.

How... how do you know she'll let us in?

It's a business.

Why shouldn't she?

Well, have you made up your mind?

Is it yes or no?

What do you think?

If we don't now, we never will.

What do you think?

What do you think?

Go on, ring the bell.

Excuse me, did you ring?

Yes.

After you.

We'll be there in a minute.

Hello.

How are you?

Nice to see you.

Let's go now.

Wait, she's coming.

Queer looking hotel.

Oh, my little angels.

Did you miss me?

I was only away a few minutes.

That's enough, that's enough.

You shouldn't make so much noise, you'll frighten the customers away.

Can I help you?

We want to rent a room.

For about an hour.

Really?

And what kind of company do you want?

Just... just ourselves.

Hide away.

Well, hide away, my little angel.

You know, birds have even bigger appetites than people, nutritionally speaking.

But we want...

You know, I had a man-eating plant once.

But the poor thing died.

Food poisoning.

I said we wanted to rent a room.

Are you playing hooky?

You're both wearing a school uniform.

We got the afternoon off.

For good behaviour.

We'll pay you for a full day.

Why didn't you say so, my little angel?

You can pay afterwards.

Shall I bring something to drink up to your room?

Whatever you like.

Where's the room?

Oh, we are unsociable, aren't we?

It's room 17, on the first floor.

Be careful where you walk.

I should light up the stairs better, but electricity is expensive.

Kerosene is expensive.

Everything's expensive.

Oh, even love.

Oh, Emile.

Emile, you're not eating.

Come, lie down with me.

There's someone in the other room.

Come here.

Someone's really there.

I'm sure they're listening to us.

Forget other people and lie down here with me properly.

Open the door.

It's that woman.

What have you done?

Locked yourselves in?

Don't you want some wine?

Come on, get up.

I want you to come here.

It's just like the noise our bed makes at night.

It's not at all like our bed.

Come and listen.

I don't hear anything.

Give me a glass.

Drink.

Just a little.

It's a couple.

Yes, and they've finished making love.

Now there's nothing to distract you.

Undress me.

If you don't want to, say so.

I'm sorry.

It's not what I thought it would be like.

Here, everything is ugly.

I'm not ugly.

You're not ugly.

You're torturing me.

I want you.

I'm sorry.

Look!

An eye.

Don't be silly.

There's nothing there.

Someone's spying on us.

If you don't stop that, I'll hate you forever.

No, don't.

I'll lie down with you.

I want to.

Show me.

Guide me.

The eye.

I saw it again.

I can hear them.

There, that's better.

You're very pretty, but not neat.

I don't like that.

Madame, I've been waiting for over 25 minutes.

Oh, here, here, you know true love takes patience.

Go on, take care of him.

It's no good.

You're spoiling everything.

We might as well go.

Don't.

Don't be angry.

I don't like this room.

I hate this place.

You thought of me, not of the room.

It was our only chance to be really together.

I hate this place.

It's for dirty people.

Well, was it pleasant?

How much?

You had a room with a bidet.

We didn't use it.

Where's your money?

Well, whose shall I take?

Mine.

The bed was comfortable?

Yes.

No.

It squeaks.

Next time, then.

Go to the Ritz.

They adore married couples.

We're in a hurry.

Was the wine good?

Excellent, but we have to go.

Come back whenever you like.

You see, Ernest.

It's a crazy world.

We're late.

We have to bring to get in.

Might as well get it over with.

No.

Not yet.

If we don't report in, we'll be punished.

I don't care.

Let's walk.

It didn't happen as I hoped.

It was my fault.

Please don't be unhappy.

If you're unhappy, I'll die.

I'll do anything to make you happy.

Anything.

Isabelle.

Darkness chilled our lips as we kissed.

We hugged one another tightly as we could

find no shelter from the great tide of time.

I became the twine around a sheaf of wheat.

How was I to soften the limbs of this fawn made of spun glass?

With my jeweller's tongue, I dropped glistening gems into her mouth.

Our mouths, as they met, opened into an accommodating dream.

I made my way inside.

Isabelle was arching herself against me, climbing me, opening herself, thrusting

herself against me, rocking me with her, breathing me in.

The dilated flesh gave thanks.

The sharp pleasure to come was being created in its petals.

I felt the intoxication seeping deep into me.

I was filled with spices and birdsong.

I was stretched open as wide as my thighs.

There was absinthe flowing through my veins.

My belly was crying out for invading warmth.

Our limbs were ripening.

Our corpses were decaying.

Exquisite decay.

I half opened my eyes.

Isabelle was watching me.

The sparrows of the night were watching us.

The darkness was bending down over us, whispering

suggestions of a chaste finale in our ears.

I felt my calves turning to lint.

Isabelle straddled across me.

The sea monster inside me was coiling its tentacles once more.

I felt her secret lips against my buttock.

I felt for her hand.

I put it against my back.

I guided it down beyond the end of my spine.

I left it pressed against the edge of my anus.

I waited patiently, letting calm seep into me.

The timid finger entered me.

But it was too timid to venture further.

My ardour had sparked an answering flame in Isabelle.

We were dependent on irresistible forces.

We sank into unconsciousness.

But we remained a single block opposed to the darkness around us.

There was no end to it as I crumbled from bliss to bliss.

Until I was all dust.

Crushed her to me.

Quivering like the tips of brittle grass in winter.

We did it from memory.

As though we'd caressed one another before we were born.

She was reflecting me.

I was reflecting her.

Two mirrors making love.

I listened with her finger to the song my fingers were singing to her.

I rocked her, sharpened her.

I restored her confidence.

Seeping streams of languor.

Cracks of sweating sweetness.

Marshes of secret delight.

Walking on the water.

I knew what that meant as my thighs flowed in that great river.

Rest.

A divine curfew.

Isabelle's finger methodically withdrew.

But my knees still swam in pools of pleasure.

It had left me.

Its departure was a slow barge laden with harmonies.

We listened to the final chord fading away.

I don't want day to come.

I'm afraid of being alone.

We'll never be separated.

Not before summer recess.

Not even then?

No.

Not even then.

Will you come to my room every evening?

Every evening.

We won't ever leave one another?

We will ever leave one another?

Never.

Never.

Never.

Never.

Never.

Never.

Never, never, never, never.

Isabelle was up early today.

Isabelle was up early today.

Isabelle was up early today.

Marie. - Present.

Nicole. - Present.

Colette. - Present.

Françoise. - Present.

Isabelle.

Isabelle.

She's absent.

Thérèse.

Present.

Alice. - Present.

Madeleine. - Present.

Annette. - Present.

The subject for today will be binomial theorems.

What is it? - A letter.

Henriette...

You may take Isabelle's seat.

Excuse me.

I don't feel well.

Isabelle!

Hello.

I was just assigned to this room.

Isabelle!

Have you seen Isabelle?

Yes, she was with her mother. They were leaving.

Have you seen Isabelle?

Her mother took her out of school this morning.

They drove away half an hour ago.

They were leaving the country.

Excuse me, Madame.

I have to close up now.

Thank you.

Please don't cry.

My visit is over.

I never saw Isabelle again.