Chapter I

Aha! the plot thickens; you don't love me any more and you
have never loved me. That is rather contradictory; how can
I cease to do a thing which I never began to do?--You see,
my little queen, you don't know what you are saying and
you are perfectly ridiculous.

ROSETTE.

I longed so to have you love me that I helped to deceive
myself. It is easy to believe what one desires; but now
I see that I am mistaken. You made a mistake yourself;
you mistook liking for love and desire for passion. It's
something that happens every day. I bear you no ill will
for it: it wasn't your fault that you weren't in love with
me; my own lack of charm is all that I have to blame.
I ought to have been prettier, more playful, more of a
flirt; I ought to have tried to rise to your level, O my
poet! instead of trying to pull you down to mine: I was
afraid of losing you among the clouds, and I dreaded lest
your head should steal your heart from me. I imprisoned
you in my love and I thought that, if I gave myself to you
utterly, you would keep a little something of me--

I.

Move away a little, Rosette; your leg burns me--you're
like a hot coal.

ROSETTE.

If I annoy you, I'll get up.--Ah! stony heart, drops of
water pierce the stone, but my tears have no effect on
you. (_She weeps_).

I.

If you weep like that, you will certainly make a bathtub
of our bed.--A bathtub, did I say? an ocean.--Can you
swim, Rosette?

ROSETTE.

Villain!