Should he stay at home with her, her mother and her sisters? But much as she liked and enjoyed their conversations forever on the same subjects--"Aline-Nadine," as the old prince called the sisters' talks--she knew it must bore him.

What was there left for him to do? To go on writing at his book he had indeed attempted, and at first he used to go to the library and make extracts and look up references for his book.

But, as he told her, the more he did nothing, the less time he had to do anything.

And besides, he complained that he had talked too much about his book here, and that consequently all his ideas about it were muddled and had lost their interest for him.