“It is a custom of mine,” she said. “I like to know where I am, and to make inquiries about the district. Things have no meaning or interest for me unless I know their names and purposes. For instance, you point out to me down there a railway line which passes into the plain. To the fact that it is a railway I am absolutely indifferent; you add, it is the line running from Troyes to the frontier, _viâ_ Belfort. Immediately my mind begins to work, and the precise representation given by the thing attaches my mind to the thing itself. As you see, I am of anything but a poetic nature.” “You appear to me to have an extraordinary intelligence.” “And one which is not of a very feminine nature, now confess.” “True, I find you anything but silly or fickle in disposition. But I give you credit for a good quality.” “In any case, confess that it is not a graceful one.” “Oh! You have so many others!” “I did not ask you for a compliment.” “You must accept it now, all the same.” She looked at him with an air of simple content, then shook her head. “That is not right of you; you have broken our agreement. It was understood between us that you should treat me as a companion, in return for which I would allow you to accompany me in my walks, and call on me unceremoniously. But you are a Frenchman, and it is impossible for you to give up all pretensions to gallantry.” “Would an Italian have stayed so long in your company without telling you how charming you are?” “Yes, if I had forbidden him to speak of such things. But he would have thought the more!” “How can you tell?” said Marcel, eagerly. “Do you think I am indifferent because, obeying you too well, I have addressed to you nothing but simple expressions of cold courtesy? Do not judge my feelings by my words; they are very different from one another.” “You have only known me for a week.” “Is a longer time needed to love for ever?” “For ever! What an engagement to make! And so quickly decided on!” “And so easy to keep when one first sees and afterwards comes to know you!” “And which can have no result, as I must soon leave, and go away far from—” “What need is there for you to follow out plans formed during the early days of sadness and solitude? Is it wise to decide for a whole lifetime in a single moment at your age, and with such a store of future compensations to draw upon? At the age of twenty-four to think that everything is lost, because destiny has separated you from a husband old enough to have been your father? Your life has only just begun, at the very time you think it is all over.”