"That is very true, monsieur. Also most matches that end happily are made without thought, and as it were by a miracle."
"Yes, I am convinced of that."
"And it is probably by a miracle also," added the elder woman, "that marriages are maintained."
"Have you been in the Orient?" asked Emusia, to change the conversation.
"Yes, mademoiselle, and I bring back a sad impression. The land of poetry is to-day the land of misery. The cradle of civilization has become the tomb."
"But there are still traces there of biblical times, are there not?" asked Muse.
"Certainly. The costumes, the habits, the landscape, all remind one of the Bible. As in old days, Rachel still leads her flocks to water, and the white-bearded patriarchs still welcome you to their tents."
"All that must be very interesting."
"Not for the children of a civilization, enervated and weakened. We can no longer live this poetical life. It is rigid, painful, grave, primitive, and laborious. It impresses us, notwithstanding its poetry, with a strange emotion toward the fountains which now are dried up."
"And the old biblical traditions?"