"What nonsense!" she protested kindly.
"And your first impression of me has never changed—confess it," he said.
"Even if that were true, it wouldn't make you very unhappy."
"What can you know about that? You beautiful women, admired and loved—what do you know?"
"You're right. Indeed, we know nothing."
But he saw that her mind was away in a land of dreams, far from him. He felt all at once the distance that divided them.
"When you come back from your travels let me know, that I may welcome you," he said, with his smooth, caressing voice.
"What travels?"
"Ah! If I knew! If I knew where your thoughts are wandering while I talk to you, I could go with you, I could follow you in your fantasies. Instead, I speak, and you don't listen to me. I say serious things to you in a jesting tone, and you understand neither the seriousness nor the joke. You leave me here alone, whilst you roam—who knows where? And I, a humble mortal, without visions, without imagination, I can only wait for your return, my dear lady."