“Facts, yes; feelings, no.”
“Do you appreciate the subtilty of the compliment? You really care for such valueless and indefinable things as feelings?”
“Yes.”
“A bargain, then, while you are in this mood of giving something for nothing. Question for question, if you choose.”
“You can tell your secrets?”
“To you, yes, for you have told me your greatest.”
“Then, with the privilege of silence for both, begin.”
“Ah, you begin already to fear the gimlet! Yes. Nothing is to be told that—There again we lack a definition, do we not? Never mind. We shall understand. You knew her in Germany?”
“Yes.”
“And she—You wear a mask, at moments even merry-faced, but now and again I have surprised a look of such sadness in your eyes that—Is that why you came to America? She”—