"I assure you, no reality has been so appealing as that dream," she persisted. "I am telling you all this with the hope that once I have laughed with you over this witchcraft it will be robbed of its potency. I have destroyed the sacred wall of sentiment surrounding this ghost of mine because I rebel at being mastered by it." "Mastered?--you?" "Oh, you laugh! You think me, then, too cold or too philosophic, in spite of what I have just told you?" "Not cold, my dear Marquise. But if you will pardon the liberty of analysis I will venture the opinion that when you are mastered it will be by yourself. Your very well-shaped head will forever defend you from the mastery of others." "Mastered by myself? I do not think I quite understand you," she said, slowly. "But I must tell you the extreme limit of my folly, the folly of the imagination. Each morning I go for a walk, as I did this morning. Each time I leave the door I have with me the fancy that somewhere I shall meet him. Of course my reason tells me how improbable it is, but I put the reason aside and enjoy my walk all the more because of that fancied tryst. Now, Monsieur Loris, you have been the victim of my romance long enough. Come; we will join Madame Blanc and have some coffee." "And this is all you have to tell me, Marquise?" "All but one little thing, Monsieur," and she laughed, though the laugh was a trifle nervous; "this morning for an instant I thought the impossible had happened. Only one street from here my ogre materialized again, or some one wondrously like him. How startled I was! How I hurried poor Madame Blanc! But we were evidently not discovered. I realized, however, at that moment, how imprudent I had been. How shocked Maman would be if she knew. Yet it was really the most innocent jest, to begin with." "They often begin that way," remarked Dumaresque, consolingly. "Well, I have arrived at one conclusion. It is only because I have met so few men, that _one_ dare make such an overwhelming impression on me. I rebel; and shall amaze Maman by becoming a social butterfly for a season. So, in future bring all your most charming friends to see me; but no tall, athletic, blue-eyed Englishmen." "So," said Dumaresque, as he followed her to the breakfast room, "I lay awake all night that I may make love to you early in the morning, and you check-mate me by thrusting forward a brawny Englishman." "Pardon; he is not brawny;" she laughed; "I never said so; nevertheless, Monsieur Loris, I can teach you one thing: When love has to be _made_ it is best not to waste time with it. The real love makes itself and will neither be helped or hindered; and the love that can be conquered is not worth having." He shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "In a year and a day I shall return to the discussion. I give you so long to change your mind and banish your phantasy; and in the meantime I remain your most devoted visitor."