Or, if you like, I could imagine _anything_ which comes practically to the same thing.

Darkness and chaos are first cousins.

I should have liked to ask the girl for a word which would give my imagination its line.

But how was one to venture so far?
I can be rough sometimes but I am not naturally impertinent.

I would have liked to ask her for instance: "Do you know what you have done with yourself ?" A question like that.