What does your
heart do in absence, what kind of man are you when there is no one but
Alfred, who will say: 'Forget her'?"
"What kind do you think?"
"While I am here beside you, you cannot even imagine how dim I might
become. Can I tell? Can you assure me?"
Dim she might become to him, but dim she was not now as she besought him
with eyes that showed a quick and eager heart, eyes fixed on his face
full of enquiry, sure of its answer, feigning doubt that did not
distress her.
"And I to you, and I to you?" he said, speaking in her ear when he had
made her an answer. "Dim, too? Why do we never talk of your inconstancy?
We must discuss it."
"Inconstancy! That word had not occurred to me. It was _your_
forgetfulness that I dreaded."
"I shall not be unforgetful until I am inconstant."
"Julien!"
"My love!"
"You can afford to tease me now you have me in such a mood!"
"In such a mood! Have I, indeed? Yet you will forget me before I forget
you."
"You tell me to my face that I shall change?" she asked.
"Yes. And since you are bound to forget me, I insist at least that there
shall be a reason for doing so. I would rather be a king dethroned than
allowed to lapse like a poor idiot."
"You would? You can say that?" Her voice rose.
"One instant, Fanny. Even when my teasing is out of taste, learn to
distinguish it from what I say in earnest.
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