"What you say is silly. Our friend the Vicomte d'Arly was married when he was sixty."
"Very well, I'll wait till then."
She began to laugh.
"Tell me, do you ever think of the dramatic coincidence of our meeting here, although you said 'good-bye' to me forever? It was fate taking its revenge on you. And quite unmercifully! . . . Why did you want to lose sight of me forever?"
He looked her straight in the face. He was very pale.
"Because my life does not belong to me," he said. Françoise leaned for a moment for support on the marble baluster. Obviously she faltered where she stood. He felt sorry for her and also not a little sorry for himself.
"Don't you think that it brings you bad luck to say 'good-bye for the present' in war time, when your life belongs to your country?"
She breathed again. She had imagined that Didier's heart was not free.
She was much easier, but she still raged within herself at the incredible obstinacy with which he refused to understand that she loved him and that he had but to say one word.
"I'll leave you," she said nervously. "I have to dress for dinner. I'm expecting one of my admirers here this evening."