"I am ready to follow you to the end of the world!" cried her cosmopolite adorer enthusiastically.
"You are jesting, monsieur, and I do not like jests of this kind. In any case, I do not count on you as a companion."
"What a pity that she is so savage!" said her admirer to himself.
The Russian listened passively, without mingling in the conversation.
"I am very curious to visit Poland and Russia," said Lucie Coloni. "They say that the Poles and Russians understand and love music, that they are enthusiastic dilettanti."
"There have been such instances in Poland," said Jacob. "In regard to Russia I know nothing. But monsieur can tell us that in his country they love art less than the artistes. In Poland there is now room only for a single sentiment. The future has but one aim. Do the witches of Shakespeare watch at the dark cross-roads, or will the angels lend their aid? God alone knows. From Warta to the frozen sea the earth is in travail, hearts beat with violence, the battle is preparing, there will be something frightful which will shake the very foundations of the earth. What song, sweet though it be, can be heard by ears which await a signal which will sound like a thunderclap?"
"Perhaps," said Lucie, "I shall have the happiness of singing your song of triumph."
"Or a death hymn," added Jacob sadly.
"Or rather a song intermezzo which makes one forget the tragedy of life," replied la Coloni. "I grant to you that this Europe, cold, dull, dead, worn out, blasé, has for me the effect of a withered bouquet picked up out of the dust. It has no longer a spark of vitality."
"Behold a sally that astonishes me, coming from you," cried the Dane. "Europe when she was young was frolicsome; maturity has arrived, but has not taken away all her charms. To-day children are born reasonable. The young man of nineteen has a drunkard's pride to drain the enormous cup to the bottom. More barriers on life's grand highway! More toll-money! Go where you will, paths open before you. More proscriptions, more laws, more prejudices, binding us. Fresh surprises! Everything is possible."