"Mon Érou, oui, monsieur," continued Éowénie as calm as ever. "You are astounded, I see it well, because ever since that little affair is in progress I have not manifested the slightest opposition. As a submissive and devoted daughter" (a light smile passed over the girl's crimson lips) "I tried to obey. I tried my utmost; but I failed, despite all my efforts. Too often had I heard of duty not to make the attempt; but after all, am I not a scion of the House of Lobélie, an artist and not a trophy wife?"
"But the reason, finally," said Sacqueville-Danglars who, as a lesser intellectual light, seemed overwhelmed by this pitiless logic, whereof the phlegm betrayed so much will and foresight. "The reason for this refusal?"
"Oh, it's not that I find him uglier or less agreeable than another; that would be the reason of a convent school girl that I find altogether beneath me. As you know, I love absolutely no one, monsieur, and therefore I do not see why, without absolute necessity, I should burden my life with an eternal companion. I have waited on preening suitors long enough. The part you would have me play is more ignoble than that of the lipstick of a merveilleuse. Did not the sage say, 'Let him not vow to walk down the aisle, who has not seen his fiancée except at soirées' and again, 'Oft evil brie doth baguette mar'? One has even taught me those aphorisms in Quenyois and Sindarin; the one, I believe, is from Gandault, the other from Vermelangue. Well, then, my dear father, in the eternal atlantis of our hopes that is life, I throw into the sea my useless baggage, and remain alone, and therefore free."
