A whiff of genuine life

Aah...for a little whiff of genuine life!

He talked of the old college days... ...of the days of keen and blind ambitions and large intentions. Now there was left with him, at least, a philosophic acquiescence to the existing order--only a desire to be permitted to exist, with now and then a little whiff of genuine life, such as he was breathing now. - from A Respectable Woman by Kate Chopin.

Kate Chopin was a genius to write short stories that were not only ahead of her times but also to pack such a punch with so few words. Her short stories, which I am reading a collection of, are just 3-4 pages long but she packs such a wallop that the characters and the story stays with you for hours after that.