"Now, little sister, you know I am an obstinate man, who likes to understand, things. How is it that a man, young, handsome, rich, talented, courageous, and imaginative, fails to interest you, particularly when he has both the good qualities and the defects of your own character?"
"What am I to say? I do not know, I cannot analyse my feelings. Some people are sympathetic to me, some indifferent, some downright disagreeable!"
"Well, you don't class Monsieur Benedict among the disagreeable, I hope."
"No, but among the indifferents."
"And why among the indifferents?"
"Monsieur Benedict is of medium height, I like tall men: he is fair, I like dark men. He is volatile, I like serious people. He is bold, always rushing off to the ends of the world; he would be the husband of other men's wives, and not even the lover of his own."
"Let us resume. What sort of man, then, must he be that would please you?"
"Somebody just the opposite of M. Benedict."
"He must be tall."
"Yes."