"You cannot be sure of that."

"Even if she did, she would always be tormented by the suspicion that
the feeling was not sincere. Moreover, there is no woman in the world
who would fall in love with me, no, not one."

"Yes, there is," said Helena, gazing into his glass eye. (He had a
glass eye, but it was so well made, it was impossible to detect it.)

"Are you sure?"

"Quite sure," replied Helena. "For you are different to other men. You
realise what spiritual love means, the love of the souls!"

"Even if the woman did exist, I could never marry her."

"Why not?"

"Share a room with her!"

"That needn't be the case. Madame de Stael merely lived in the same
house as her husband."

"Did she?"

"What interesting topic are you two discussing?" asked the professor's
wife, coming out of the drawing-room.

"We were talking of _Laocoon_," answered Helena, rising, from her