"Have you been ill? it seems to me that you are a little pale."
"I am never very red. The women you see are so fresh and rosy, that you are struck by the difference."
"Ah! madame, I see no woman whom it gives me so much pleasure to look at as you."
"Really?"
She uttered that word with an accent that came from her heart. I made her sit down beside me. She looked all about the room, murmuring:
"Are you alone?"
"To be sure!"
"And I do not intrude?"
"Once more, I tell you that you never intrude."
"Oh! never is too strong. What if she were with you?"