"True; but it might never dawn."
"Ah, my lord, one cannot stop to consider possibilities if life is to be lived."
"The other day you spoke of visions, visions in St. Etienne in the night. Is it true that you have been dreaming again?" asked Felix.
"I always dream; so do other men, only with the light they forget. I remember. Half our life is a dream, visions of things we long for, yet never attain to. Love, hope, ambition, they are all dreams, sometimes turned to realities, yet seldom fulfilling expectation."
"Have I entered into your visions?" asked Felix, and eagerness was in the question in spite of his efforts to conceal it.
"Often," answered the dwarf, quick to catch the trend of the Count's question. "Often, as lover, as a man of hope, as a slave of ambition."
"How say you? Slave!"
"Truly we are all slaves in varying degree; slaves to love, slaves——"
"Since when have I been slave to love?" asked Felix.