'You'd go to the length of marrying me. Only fancy!'
'Oh, you may laugh. But I love you.'
'Do you love me as much as you used to love Helene?'
'I love you as much as it's possible for a man to love a woman.'
'Do you know what I think?'
'No. What?'
'If she were to send for you, one of these days, I think you'd forget
me utterly. Your old love would come back at sight of her. They say
she's very good-looking.'
'Nonsense.'
'I should like to try you.'
'I shouldn't fear the trial.'
'_Il ne faut jamais dire a la fontaine, je ne boirai pas de ton eau_.'
'But when one's thirst is for wine?'
'It shows that there's some relation between psychology and geography,
after all,' she said.
'What do you mean?'
'Oh, the influence of places. It is here that you and she used to
play a fugue on each other's names. The spot raises ghosts. Ghosts of
your old emotions. And I'm conveniently at hand.'
'If you could see yourself, you'd understand that the influence of
places is superfluous. If you could look into my heart you'd recognise
that my emotion is scarcely a ghost.'
'There's one thing I _should_ like to see,' she said. 'I should very
much like to look into your garden at Saint-Graal.'
'Would you?' he cried eagerly. 'When will you come?'
'Whenever you like?'
'Now.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202