"Pray don't."
"I shall approach the matter gradually. I shall go into the shop several times to buy certain things. First a pot of cold cream, then a piece of soap, then a bottle of glycerine. I shall go into a great many ecstasies and express no end of admiration. Meanwhile, she will slowly move around, and every now and then she will look at me. And so, little by little, I will come to the great point."
"Perhaps you will not be listened to."
"I will make a very handsome offer."
"What sort of an offer do you mean?"
"I am ashamed to tell you: you will call it throwing away money."
An offer of money! He was really very crude. Should I too come to this if I continued to live in Paris? "Oh," I said, "if you think that money simply will do it—"
"Why, you don't suppose," he exclaimed, "that I expect to have her for nothing?" He was actually cynical, and I remained silent. "But I shall not be happy again—at least for a long time"—he went on, "unless I succeed. I have always dreamed of just such a woman as that; and now at last, when I behold her perfect image and embodiment, why I simply can't do without her." He was evidently very sincere.
"You are simply in love," I said.
