Leonarda monologue (Act 3) — Three Comedies

No, no! I have never realised as strongly as I do now how I have buried myself all these eight years. All the books I have read about the great movements going on in the world outside have not really enlightened me. All that I have read and thought fades away before the first gleam of life that reaches me from the real world of men and women. I see new beauty merely in your new clothes, your fashionable hat--the colours you are wearing--the way they are blended. They mean something that I know nothing of. You bring a fragrance in with you--a breath of freshness; you are so dainty and full of life; whereas everything here has become so old, so heavy, so disjointed--and my life most of all.