"Don't you love him?"
"No."
"Not even a little? Don't you like him?"
"No, I don't love him, I don't even like him."
"I can't believe it," he said, very gravely, as if he saw before him an insurmountable obstacle.
"You deceive yourself then," said she.
"I see that you receive him kindly, that you speak to him politely, that you listen to his compliments, apparently with pleasure. That's a great deal for a young girl to do." And he lifted his eyebrows.
"I have done it to please you—because he is a friend of yours," she cried.
"Thank you," he cried, curtly.
Then befell a silence. She played with an antique coin attached to her watch-chain, and kept her eyes cast down.