'Oh, no, my life is very real; it is as real as light to darkness, it is absolute prose.'
'Make it poetry then; that is very easy.'
'Poetry is to the poetical; I am by no means poetical. My stud-book, my stewards' ledgers, my bankers' accounts, form the chief of my literature; you know I am a practical farmer.'
'I know you are one of the most beautiful and one of the richest women in Europe, and you live as if you were fifty years old, ugly, and dévote; all this will grow on you. In a few years' time you will be a hermit, a prude, an ascetic. You will found a new order, and be canonised after death.'
'My aunt is afraid that I shall die a freethinker. It is hard to please every one,' replied the Countess Wanda, with unruffled good humour. 'It is poetical people who found religious orders, enthusiasts, visionaries; I wish I were one of them. But I am not. The utmost I can do is to follow George Herbert's precept and sweep my own little chambers, so that this sweeping may be in some sort a duty done.'
'You are a good woman, Wanda, and I dare say a grand one, but you are too grave for me.'
'You mean that I am dull? People always grow dull who live much alone.'
'But you could have the whole world at your feet if you only raised a finger.'
'That would not amuse me at all.'
Her guest gave an impatient movement of her shoulders; after a little she said, 'Did Réné de Sabran amuse you?'