HUMAN NATURE BEING WHAT IT IS

Human nature being what it is;
Invariably courteous and unapproachable,
This state of moral weakness,
That lamentable substitute for courage.
Tropical nature has been kind to the failure of the commercial enterprise;
The business was done by a guest,
He set off rolling on his bandy legs to impart to his masters the astonishing discovery of a woman.

That night the girl woke up,
Tense enough almost to hear the grass grow,
More in the manner of a squirrel than a cat
With a slow, floating descent into vertical folds,
Which once upon a time had measured the hours of philosophic meditation.
But already all her aroused femininity,
All aquiver with the effort to set the earth on fire.
As long as I am free to plug him or rip him,
The flush of rapture flooding her whole being.
You'll have to forgive me;
Nothing!

(first and last lines from Joseph Conrad's ''Victory'')