Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 4.djvu/106

 On my word, you don't know how wretched life is over there; we secretaries of embassies are like the swallows that never alight. For us there are none of those intimate relations that make the happiness of life." (He uttered these last words in a singularly strange tone, drawing closer to Julie.) "For six years I have found no one with whom I could exchange my thoughts."

"Then you had no friends over there."

"I have just been telling you that it is impossible to have any in a foreign country. I left two in France, one is dead, the other is in America, whence he will not return for some years, if the yellow fever does not keep him there for ever."

"So you are alone?"

"Alone."

"And ladies' society, what is it like in the East? Was there no satisfaction in it?"

"Oh, that was the worst of all. Turkish women were not to be thought of. As for the Greeks and Armenians, the best that one can say of them is that they are very pretty. When it comes to the wives of consuls and ambassadors, you must excuse me from discussing them. That is a diplomatic question, and if I said what I really think, I might harm my prospects in foreign affairs."