little – just sufficient to warrant that excuse!
MME. DE SALLUS
But I do not excuse myself: I accuse myself.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Then you did love me a little – and then – now – you love me no more!
MME. DE SALLUS
Do not let us argue.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
You do nothing else.
MME. DE SALLUS
No, I only judge the present by the past; the only just ideas and sane notions of life one can form are those concerning that which is past.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
And do you regret —
MME. DE SALLUS
Perhaps!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
And what about to-morrow?
MME. DE SALLUS
I do not know.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Is it nothing to you to have one who is yours, body and soul? MME. DE SALLUS [shrugs her shoulders]
Yes, mine to-day.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [vehemently]
And to-morrow!
MME. DE SALLUS [shrugs her shoulders again]
Yes, the to-morrow that follows to-night, but not the to-morrow of a year hence.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [emphatically]
You shall see. But how about your husband?
MME. DE SALLUS
Does he annoy you?
JACQUES DE RANDOL By heaven —
MME. DE SALLUS
Hush! [Archly.] My husband has fallen in love with me again.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Is it possible?
MME. DE SALLUS [indignantly]
What do you mean by such an insolent question, and why should it not be possible?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
A man falls in love with his wife before he marries her, but after marriage he never commits the same mistake.
MME. DE SALLUS
But perhaps he has never really been in love with me until now.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
It is absolutely impossible that he could have lived with you – even in his curt, cavalier fashion – without loving you.
MME. DE SALLUS [indifferently]
It is of little importance. He has either loved me in the past, or is now beginning to love me.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Truly, I do not understand you. Tell me all about it.
MME. DE SALLUS
But I have nothing to tell. He declares his love for me, takes me in his arms, and threatens me with his conjugal rights. This upsets me, torments me, and annoys me.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Madeline you torture me.
MME. DE SALLUS [quickly]
And what about me? Do you think that I do not suffer? I know that I am not exactly a faithful woman since I received your addresses, but I have, and shall retain, a single heart. It is either you or he. It will never be you and he. For me that would be infamy – the greatest infamy of a guilty woman, the sharing of her heart – a thing that debases her. One may fall, perhaps, because there are ditches along the wayside and it is not always easy to follow the right path. But if one falls, that is no reason to throw oneself in the abyss.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [takes her in his arms and kisses her]
I simply adore you!
MME. DE SALLUS [melts]
And I, too, love you dearly, Jacques, and that is the reason why I fear.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
But, tell me, Madeline how long has it been since your husband reformed?
MME. DE SALLUS
Possibly fifteen days or three weeks.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Without relapse?
MME. DE SALLUS
Without relapse.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I will explain the mystery. The fact of the matter is this, your husband has simply become a widower.
MME. DE SALLUS
What do you say?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I mean that your husband is unattached just now, and seeks to spend his leisure time with his wife.
MME. DE SALLUS
But I tell you that he is in love with me.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Yes – yes – and no. He is in love with you – and also with another. Tell me, his temper is usually bad, isn’t it?
MME. DE SALLUS
Execrable!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Well, then, here is a man in love with you who shows his wonderful return of tenderness by moods that are simply unsupportable – for they are unsupportable, aren’t they?
MME. DE SALLUS
Absolutely.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
If he wooed you with tenderness you would not feel fear. You would say to yourself, “My turn has come at last,” and then he would inspire you with a little pity for him, for a woman has always a sneaking sort of compassion for the man who loves her, even though that man be her husband.
MME. DE SALLUS
Perhaps that is true.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Is he nervous, preoccupied?
MME.
