La sainte courtisane

Myrrhina, a courtisane, seeks out a hermit who she has heard is beautiful; she hopes to tempt him from his righteous path into a life of earthly love. However, on beholding the cross for the first time, she finds herself instead converting to a life of virtue, while he, who indeed has fallen for her beauty, hopes to take her away as his lover. Written in 1894, 'La Sainte Courtisane' exists only as a fragment and was never completed. Here, a line of dots in the text indicates where a new fragment begins.