“Châli” - the short story of Guy de Maupassant.
“Admiral de la Vallee, who seemed to be half asleep in his armchair, said in a voice which sounded like an old woman’s:
“I had a very singular little love adventure once; would you like to hear it?”
He spoke from the depths of his great chair, with that everlasting dry, wrinkled smile on his lips, that smile à la Voltaire, which made people take him for a terrible skeptic.”