“When a girl is in love she does not speak about it?”
“No, my dear. She lets concealment like a worm i’ the bud feed on her damask cheek.”
“Then she gets ugly?”
“That’s it,” I answered. “You keep on looking in the glass, and when you perceive you are hideous then you’ll know you are in love.”
“But when I am so ugly you will not want me,” she objected. “So it is no use falling in love with you.”
“You have a more logical mind than I imagined,” said I.
“What is a logical mind?” asked Carlotta.
“It is the antiseptic which destroys the bacilli of unreason whereby true happiness is vivified.”
“I do not understand,” she said.
“I should be vastly surprised if you did,” I laughed.