That is why I call my wood the torture-chamber!⁠ ⁠… You see, it’s all a joke. I never express myself like other people. But I am very tired of it!⁠ ⁠… I’m sick and tired of having a forest and a torture-chamber in my house and of living like a mountebank, in a house with a false bottom!⁠ ⁠… I’m tired of it! I want to have a nice, quiet flat, with ordinary doors and windows and a wife inside it, like anybody else! A wife whom I could love and take out on Sundays and keep amused on weekdays.⁠ ⁠… Here, shall I show you some card-tricks? That will help us to pass a few minutes, while waiting for eleven o’clock tomorrow evening.⁠ ⁠… My dear little Christine!⁠ ⁠… Are you listening to me?⁠ ⁠… Tell me you love me!⁠ ⁠… No, you don’t love me⁠ ⁠… but no matter, you will!⁠ ⁠… Once, you could not look at my mask because you knew what was behind.⁠ ⁠… And now you don’t mind looking at it and you forget what is behind!⁠ ⁠… One can get used to everything⁠ ⁠… if one wishes.⁠ ⁠… Plenty of young people who did not care for each other before marriage have adored each other since! Oh, I don’t know what I am talking about! But you would have lots of fun with me. For instance, I am the greatest ventriloquist that ever lived, I am the first ventriloquist in the world!⁠ ⁠… You’re laughing.⁠ ⁠… Perhaps you don’t believe me? Listen.”