"Something more than absence saddens our farewells. Shall we find intact on her return this rather diverse friendship in which we have known such rare joy? I tell her of my doubts.
"'I am half English,' she replies. 'The country is so attractive to me because of the habit of self-government one acquires there and the evidence of honesty in the ideal of friendship. Do you not owe to it this friendship of which you are speaking? A Frenchwoman would never have asked you for it.'
"'Is this friendship singular, Anne? I know nothing of your life over there. Only, I am uneasy. Uneasy and jealous.'
"'Have you no confidence in me? You have the essential.'
"'And the rest?'
"'The rest is not worth while.'
"There is something in these words which leaves a deep melancholy. Before leaving her I looked at the ceiling.
"'Still no mistletoe?'
"She laughed with all her youthfulness.
"'Still no mistletoe!'