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Having once casually come across a young girl with laughing eyes, I had concluded that she was just what an ideal Dulcinea ought to be; I therefore followed her about, every time I met her, and sometimes even tried to think of her at odd moments, when I had nothing to do."
"And how did the affair end?"
"In a most ridiculous way. The thing happened I think, about a year or two before I left the Lycée; yes, I remember, it was during the midsummer holidays, and the very first time I had ever travelled alone.
"Being of a rather shy disposition, I was somewhat flurried and nervous at having to elbow my way through the crowd, to hurry and push about to get my ticket, to take care so as not to get into a train going in the wrong direction.
"The upshot of all this was that, before being thoroughly aware of it, I found myself seated in front of the girl I believed myself in love with, and moreover in a carriage reserved for the fair sex.
"Unfortunately, in the same carriage there was a creature who surely could not go under
