"That I can quite believe."
"Yes. When she threw everything away and ran, I felt certain that it was to get me to run after her."
"Did you not hear me call twice: 'Don't do it!'?"
"Yes, but I did not understand that either."
Alice sat down with a hopeless feeling. She said no more; she thought it useless to do so. He seated himself opposite to her.
"Explain it to me, Alice! Did you not see how she laughed when I danced off with you?"
"Has it not dawned upon you yet that there is a difference between us and her?"
"Mary Krog is most unassuming; she makes no pretensions whatever."
"Quite so. But now you are misunderstanding me again. Whereas we are ordinary beings, whom other people may touch with impunity, she dwells in a remoteness which no one as yet has diminished by one foot. It is not from pride or vanity that she does so."
"No, no!"