"Oh! that makes no difference, my good little sister; her glances, her voice, her smile, all made my heart ache! You can't imagine what agony it is to be with a person you love, and who doesn't love you!"
"Yes, yes, I understand."
"Especially when you have imagined for some time that you possessed that person's heart; when you have flattered yourself with the prospect of passing your life with her! To see that woman again, when she belongs to another, is the most frightful torture. Fanny smiled at me, she asked me to call on her. But I would have preferred a cold, harsh greeting a hundred times over; I would have liked her to avoid my presence as I meant to avoid hers; for then I would have thought: 'I am not utterly indifferent to her.'—However, that won't happen again, for I am going away, and I have come to say good-bye."
"You are going away again! Mon Dieu! you have only just returned!"
"Ah! I should have done better not to return so soon. Living in Paris weighs on me, it recalls the past too vividly."
"And where are you going now?"
"To Germany, Austria—as far away as possible!"
"For a long time?"
"Oh! yes, for I don't propose to return until I am thoroughly cured of my unhappy passion."
Adolphine put her handkerchief to her eyes.