Ever since he thought he knew her by heart, the sculptor Baptist D... took pleasure in losing his young bride in large human gatherings, then finding her again with delight, far off in the distance amongst the crowd, just by a simple flutter of her shoulders or any other sign - however slight - of her presence.
However, during the opening of the Universal Exhibit on 5 June 1905, after six hours of useless research and having undergone humiliating shudders of victory which were immediately contradicted, he finally understood that she had herself lost him, with no intention whatsoever to find him back.