"What, already a widow? How sorry I am for you!"
"Pray, why should you suppose that I am to be pitied? Are all husbands so kind? Are all men so tender? Is there, on the contrary, one who deserves to be regretted?"
"Oh, what an anathema! He is a happy fellow who succeeds in inspiring you with juster, milder feelings!"
"Toward men? Heaven forbid!"
"Then you are determined to drive to despair all the troop of admirers who, no doubt—"
"I haven't one; I have just arrived from the other side of the world, and know nobody here."
"Nobody, really? Then, fair Mask, I put myself down as your first, and you will see that I shall be ever the most devoted, the most constant—"
"Constant! Bon Dieu! If it is in that strain you are going to talk, I shall leave you forthwith."
"What, does constancy—?
"Constancy is but a chain that we pretend to wear in order to impose its weight on another. Now that I am free, perfectly free, I intend to remain so; no man living could induce me to forswear myself."