Je devinai son indicible abattement. He was silent, and I guessed at his unutterable depression.
— Je me sens si loin d’elle. “I feel far away from her,” he said. Il est si difficile de lui faire comprendre… “It’s hard to make her understand.”
— Le bal, vous voulez dire ? “You mean about the dance?”
D’un claquement de doigts, il fit bon marché de tous les bals qu’il avait jamais donnés. “The dance?” He dismissed all the dances he had given with a snap of his fingers. — Vieux frère, le bal est sans importance. “Old sport, the dance is unimportant.”