He loves me... he loves me not

The phrase they speak on picking off the last petal supposedly represents the truth between the object of their affection loving them or not.

The player typically is motivated by attraction to the person they are speaking of while reciting the phrases.

In the original French version of the game, the petals do not simply indicate whether the object of the player's affection loves them, but to what extent: un peu or "a little", beaucoup or "a lot", passionnément or "passionately", à la folie or "to madness", or pas du tout or "not at all."

(1808) This fortune-telling is shown as a pantomime in the 1st act of Giselle, ballet by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot (Paris, 1841).

In Part 6 of Anna Karenina, Kitty and Levin play this game (regarding whether another character will propose that day).