exile and the kingdom/the adulterous wife

"the only joy he gave her was the knowledge that she was needed. he probably did not love her. love, even hatred, did not have this closed face. but what was its face? they made love at night, without seeing each other, groping in the dark. was there love other than one in darkness, a love that would cry out in broad daylight? she did not know, but she knew that Marcel needed her and that she needed this need, that she lived by it day and night, especially at night - each night when he did not want to be alone or grow old or die, with that stubborn expression he assumed and which she sometimes recognised on the faces of other men, the only common expression of those madmen who camouflaged themselves as rational beings until delirium caught them and threw them desperately at a woman's body to bury there, undriven by desire, what solitude and the night made them fear."

- the adulterous wife by albert camus