FALL IN LOVE, LADS
My house was so close that I was there in under three minutes. I paused in the corridor to get my breath and tried to forget that body: white, misshapen and other things, too, which I have not mentioned so as not to make these pages too repulsive, though you can imagine them. I swept all this from my mind in a matter of seconds, needing only to think of that other house and, above all, of Capitu and her sweet face, so full of life … Fall in love, lads, and especially with charming, beautiful girls, for it is they who are the cure for our diseases, the balm for what is rank and who give us life for death. Fall in love, lads!