“Beyond this enclosure lay a large piece of uncultivated ground covered with gorse, over which the wind rustled and blew day and night. Then the coast suddenly fell a hundred yards, forming a high, white cliff, the foot of which was washed by the sea; and Jane gazed at the vast, watery expanse whose waves seem to be sleeping under the stars.
In this repose of nature, when the sun was absent, the earth gave out all of her perfumes. A jasmine, which had climbed round the lower windows, exhaled its penetrating fragrance which united with the subtler odor of the budding leaves, and the soft breeze brought with it the damp, salt smell of the seaweeds and the beach.”
– Guy de Maupassant, A Woman’s Life