"You can't get a seat, Fräulein?" he asked point-blank.
She blushed and said with a foreign accent:
"No, sir."
"I have a box which I don't know what to do with. Will you make use of it with me?"
She blushed again and thanked him and said she could not accept. Christophe was embarrassed by her refusal, begged her pardon and tried to insist, but he could not persuade her, although it was obvious that she was dying to accept. He was very perplexed. He made up his mind suddenly.
"There is a way out of the difficulty," he said. "You take the ticket. I don't want it. I have seen the play." (He was boasting). "It will give you more pleasure than me. Take it, please."
The girl was so touched by his proposal and the cordial manner in which it was made that tears all but came to her eyes. She murmured gratefully that she could not think of depriving him of it.
"Then, come," he said, smiling.
He looked so kind and honest that she was ashamed of having refused, and she said in some confusion:
"Thank you. I will come."