Read it through once

He then said that she was the daughter of a French opera-dancer, Céline Varens, towards whom he had once cherished what he called a “_grande passion_.” This passion Céline had professed to return with even superior ardour. He thought himself her idol, ugly as he was: he believed, as he said, that she preferred his “_taille d’athlète_” to the elegance of the Apollo Belvidere.