Countess. Is bored too, perhaps?
Prince. It’s an idea, and with that combination, too, may become original enough. They are both bored—Well, you see, chère madame, we are progressing. Let us pass on to the dialogue—That, that’s the easiest—Once in the dialogue it will go by itself—“The Count—” The Count—he enters, doesn’t he?
Countess. Quite right.
Prince. And in entering, he says—
Countess. He says?
Prince. What?
Countess. I am asking you.
Prince. Well—he might say, for instance, “Always alone, dear Countess?”
Countess. I see nothing inappropriate in that.
Prince. It’s sufficiently the phrase of a bored man—“Always alone, dear Countess?”