DONNA MATILDA. Yes, I know. But with him one couldn't joke (_changing her tone and speaking to the Doctor_). One of the many misfortunes which happen to us women, Doctor, is to see before us every now and again a pair of eyes glaring at us with a contained intense promise of eternal devotion. (_Bursts out laughing_). There is nothing quite so funny. If men could only see themselves with that eternal fidelity look in their faces! I've always thought it comic; then more even than now. But I want to make a confession--I can do so after twenty years or more. When I laughed at him then, it was partly out of fear. One might have almost believed a promise from those eyes of his. But it would have been very dangerous. DOCTOR (_with lively interest_). Ah! ah! This is most interesting! Very dangerous, you say? DONNA MATILDA. Yes, because he was very different from the others. And then, I am ... well ... what shall I say?... a little impatient of all that is pondered, or tedious. But I was too young then, and a woman. I had the bit between my teeth. It would have required more courage than I felt I possessed. So I laughed at him too--with remorse, to spite myself, indeed; since I saw that my own laugh mingled with those of all the others--the other fools--who made fun of him. BELCREDI. My own case, more or less! DONNA MATILDA. You make people laugh at you, my dear, with your trick of always humiliating yourself. It was quite a different affair with him. There's a vast difference. And you--you know--people laugh in your face! BELCREDI. Well, that's better than behind one's back! DOCTOR. Let's get to the facts. He was then already somewhat exalted, if I understand rightly. BELCREDI. Yes, but in a curious fashion, doctor. DOCTOR. How? BELCREDI. Well, cold-bloodedly so to speak. DONNA MATILDA. Not at all! It was like this, doctor! He was a bit strange, certainly; but only because he was fond of life: eccentric, there! BELCREDI. I don't say he simulated exaltation. On the contrary, he was often genuinely exalted. But I could swear, doctor, that he saw himself at once in his own exaltation. Moreover, I'm certain it made him suffer. Sometimes he had the most comical fits of rage against himself. DOCTOR. Yes? DONNA MATILDA. That is true.