DE RONCHARD [_with contempt_]
Oh, yes; a _fin-de-si?cle_ Musotte, which is still worse. Musotte is not a name.
L?ON
My dear Aunt, it is only a nickname. The nick-name of a model. Her true name is Henriette L?v?que.
MME. DE RONCHARD [_puzzled_]
L?v?que?
L?ON
Yes, L?v?que. What does this questioning mean? It is just as I told you, or else I know nothing about it. Now, Henriette L?v?que, or Musotte, if you prefer that term, has not only been faithful to Jean during the course of her love affair with him; has not only been devoted and adoring, and full of a tenderness which was ever watchful, but at the very hour of her rupture with him, she gave proof of her greatness of soul. She accepted everything without reproach, without recrimination; the poor little girl understood everything--understood that all was finished and finished forever. With the intuition of a woman, she felt that Jean's love for my sister was real and deep, she bowed her head to circumstances and she departed, accepting, without a murmur, the loneliness that Jean's action brought upon her. She carried her fidelity to the end, for she would have slain herself sooner than become [_hesitating out of respect for_ Mme. de Ronchard] a courtesan. And this I _know_.
MME. DE RONCHARD
And has Jean never seen her since?
L?ON
Not once; and that is more than eight months ago. He wished for news of her, and he gave me the task of getting it. I never found her and I have never been able to gain any knowledge of her, so cunningly did she arrange this flight of hers--this flight which was so noble and so self-sacrificing. [_Changing his tone._] But I don't know why I repeat all this. You know it just as well as I do, for I have told it to you a dozen times.
MME. DE RONCHARD
It is just as incredible at the twentieth time as at the first.
L?ON
It is nevertheless the truth.
MME. DE RONCHARD [_sarcastically_]
Well, if it is really the truth, you were terribly wrong in helping Jean to break his connection with such an admirable woman.
L?ON
Oh, no, Aunt, I only did my duty. You have even called me hairbrained, and perhaps you were right; but you know that I can be very serious when I wish. If this three-year-old _liaison_ had lasted until now, Jean would have been ruined.
MME. DE RONCHARD
Well, how could we help that?
L?ON
Well, these things are frightful--these entanglements--I can't help using the word. It was my duty as a friend--and I wish to impress it upon you--to rescue Jean; and as a brother, it was my duty to marry my sister to such a man as he. The future will tell you whether I was right or not. [_Coaxingly._] And then, my dear Aunt, when later you have a little nephew or a little niece to take care of, to dandle in your arms, you will banish all these little spaniels that you are taking care of at Neuilly.
MME. DE RONCHARD
The poor little darlings! I, abandon them! Don't you know that I love them as a mother loves her children?
L?ON
Oh, yes; you can become an aunt to them, then, because you will have to become a mother to your little nephew.
MME. DE RONCHARD
Oh, hold your tongue; you irritate me. (Jean _appears with_ Gilberte _for a moment at C._)
JEAN [_to servant entering_ R.]
Joseph, have you forgotten nothing, especially the flowers?
SERVANT
Monsieur and Madame may rest assured that everything has been done.
[_Exit servant_ L.]
L?ON [_to_ Mme. de Ronchard]
Look at them; aren't they a bonny couple?
SCENE IV.
(_The same with_ Jean _and_ Gilberte.)
JEAN [_approaches_ Mme. de Ronchard _and speaks to her_]
Do you know of whom we were talking just now? We were talking of you.
L?ON [_aside_]
Ahem! ahem!
JEAN
Yes; I was just saying that I had not made you a present on the occasion of my nuptials, because the choosing of it demanded a great deal of reflection.
MME. DE RONCHARD [_dryly_]
But Gilberte made me a very pretty one for you both, Monsieur.
JEAN
But that is not enough. I have been looking for something which I thought would be particularly acceptable to you; and do you know what I found? It is a very small thing, but I ask you, Madame, to be so good as to accept this little pocketbook, which holds some bank-notes, for the benefit of your dear little deserted pets. You can add to your home for these little pets some additional kennels on the sole condition that you will allow me from time to time to come and pet your little pensioners, and on the additional condition that you will not pick out the most vicious among them to greet me.
MME. DE RONCHARD [_greatly impressed_]
With all my heart, I thank you. How good of you to think of my poor little orphans!
L?ON [_whispers to_ Jean]
You diplomat, you!
JEAN
There is nothing extraordinary about it, Madame. I am very fond of dumb animals. They are really the foster-brothers of man, sacrificed for them, slaves to them, and in many cases their food. They are the true martyrs of the world.
MME. DE RONCHARD
What you say is very true, Monsieur, and I have often thought of it in that way. For instance, take those poor horses, scourged and beaten by coachmen in the streets.
L?ON [_with sarcastic emphasis_]
And the pheasants, Auntie, and the partridges and the blackcock falling on all sides under a hail of lead, flying panic-stricken before the horrible massacre of the guns.
MME. DE RONCHARD
Oh, don't talk like that, it makes me shudder; it is horrible!
JEAN
