"Queer little thing!" said the stranger as if to himself, with a cool smile. "What?" His eyes took on a bolder expression. The girl questioned him in deep excitement: "Have you never met a kind, simple woman, or a girl ...?" He broke in: "Kind ones there are a-plenty, fair lady." "No," she said, more calmly now, "I mean a woman who said to you, 'Speak to me as to a human being--tell me what you know and what you think. I need something for my soul to live on!'" "No," he said, "I have never met one like that. When I have talked to one as to a human being, she always began to yawn." "Really?" said the girl sadly. "Or is it that it happened two or three times as you say, and then you frightened all the rest?" "It may be. But it's not a question of much importance." "Why not!" she asked excitedly. "Because the most that could come out of it would be a silly love-story, Mamsell--the same old silly story." "That is sad," said the girl. "God looks into my heart," she went on simply. "Yes, I wanted to keep you here because I felt that you could say some living words to me. I wanted to hear you say them. But now you are not the sort of man I thought ... Do you think that the men you saw here tonight are cleverer than I am? And do you suppose that a single one of them understood what you were saying? I could see in their faces that they thought you were half crazy. Good night!" she said quietly, turning from him and going through the door. "The devil!" he thought. "A clever little bluestocking--and good looking! Well, we'll see ... Even a few miles from his Excellency wonderful specimens are growing."