“Then we could chat.”
“That we could! You might tell me all your beautiful thoughts, which excite the unbounded admiration of every one who listens to you. Where do you get your strange thoughts from, Lucia?”
“From the land of dreams,” she said, with a smile.
“The land of dreams! A land of your own invention, surely! You ought to write these things, Lucia. You have the making of an authoress.”
“What would be the good of it; I have no vanity, have I, Professor? I never had any.”
“Never! An excessive modesty, united to rare talent....”
“Basta, I was not begging for compliments. I was thinking of how much I suffered from my usual sleeplessness, last night....”
“I hope you took no chloral?”
“I refrained from it to please you. I bore with insomnia for your sake.”
“Thank you, my angel.”