Startled, Alexandrie can't help but laugh, short and abrupt, at Helena's sudden and unconventional appearance from above her in the tree. The question that follows it touches a little close for comfort. Is she? Perhaps, but it is a loneliness for want of something that is gone now—that must be gone now—and moreover she does not want to be lonely.

"Bonjour, cherie!" she exclaims instead, wiping away whatever it was that had made her self-indulgent melancholy so obvious on her face. "A fine climbing tree, is it not?"