“I wish I could believe it! Why were we sitting there in that carriage together? It wakes apprehension!”
“I think we were divorced, my lady!”
“Hardly enough: we are still together!”
“A sad truth, but capable of remedy: the forest seems of some extent!”
“I doubt! I doubt!”
“I am sorry I cannot think of a compliment to pay you—without lying, that is. To judge by your figure and complexion you have lived hard since I saw you last! I cannot surely be QUITE so naked as your ladyship!—I beg your pardon, madam! I trust you will take it I am but jesting in a dream! It is of no consequence, however; dreaming or waking, all’s one—all merest appearance! You can’t be certain of anything, and that’s as good as knowing there is nothing! Life may teach any fool that!”
“It has taught me the fool I was to love you!”
“You were not the only fool to do that! Women had a trick of falling in love with me:—I had forgotten that you were one of them!” “I did love you, my lord—a little—at one time!”
“Ah, there was your mistake, my lady! You should have loved me much, loved me devotedly, loved me savagely—loved me eternally! Then I should have tired of you the sooner, and not hated you so much afterward!—But let bygones be bygones!—WHERE are we? Locality is the question! To be or not to be, is NOT the question!”
“We are in the other world, I presume!”