"It is evidently over," said Princess Kouragine.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because he is happy. Il n'a plus des yeux qui regardent au delà."
"Was he very much in love with her?" I asked.
"Yes, very much. And she too. He will be a character for Mr. Rudd," she went on, "I saw him talking to him yesterday, with Mrs. Lennox and Jean. Jean likes him. She looks better these last two days."
I said I had noticed she seemed more lively.
"Ah, but physically she looks different. That child wants admiration and love."
"Love?" I said. "Won't it be rather unfortunate if she looks for love in that quarter? He won't love again, will he? Or not so soon as this."
"You are like the people who think one can only have measles once," she said. "One can have it over and over again, and the worse you have it once, the worse you may get it again. He is just in the most susceptible state of all."
I said they both seemed to me in the same position. They were both of them bound by old ties.