"She is very dear to me," he said carefully, "as I am sure she once was to you. Perhaps still is. She's music in a quiet night, isn't she?"
He pushed a hand through his hair, looked troubled for a moment. "You two's parting... you were still in love with her then, were you not?" he asked. The makeup girl was pointedly not looking at him, trying to feign her own invisibility as she daubed makeup on Dasha. "Do you still love her that way now?"