Call if you will, but listen to me. I would not that you should ever be able to reproach me for the madness that you meditate. God forbid that you should hate me, but, bound to me by this flight that you propose, you would carry with you forever a keen and unavailing regret that I allowed you to do it. MME. DE SALLUS Let me go! I despise you! Let me go! JACQUES DE RANDOL Well, if you wish to fly, why, let us fly. MME. DE SALLUS Oh, no, not now. I know you now. It is too late. Let me go. JACQUES DE RANDOL I have done exactly what I ought to have done; I have said exactly what I ought to have said; consequently, I am no longer responsible for you, and you have no right to reproach me with the consequences. So let us fly. MME. DE SALLUS Oh, no, it is too late, and I do not care to accept sacrifices. JACQUES DE RANDOL There is no more any question of sacrifice. To fly with you is my most ardent desire. MME. DE SALLUS [_astonished_] You are mad. JACQUES DE RANDOL Well, suppose I am mad. That is only natural, since I love you. MME. DE SALLUS What do you mean? JACQUES DE RANDOL I mean what I say. I love you; I have nothing else to say. Let us fly. MME. DE SALLUS Ah, you were altogether too cautious just now to become so brave all at once. JACQUES DE RANDOL Will you ever understand me? Listen to me. When I first realized that I adored you, I made a solemn vow concerning what might happen between you and me. The man who falls in love with a woman such as you, a woman married yet deserted; a slave in fact yet morally free, institutes between her and himself a bond which only she can break. The woman risks everything. Ay, it is just because she does this, because she gives everything--her heart, her body, her soul, her honor, her life, because she has foreseen all the miseries, all the dangers, all the misfortunes that can happen, because she dares to take so bold, and fearless a step, and because she is ready and determined to hazard everything--a husband who could kill her, and a world that would scorn her--it is for all this and for the heroism of her conjugal infidelity, that her lover, in taking her, ought to foresee all, to guard her against every ill that can possibly happen. I have nothing more to say. I spoke at first as a calm and foreseeing man who wished to protect you against everything--now I am simply and only the man who loves you. Order me as you please. MME. DE SALLUS That is all very prettily said; but is it true? JACQUES DE RANDOL I swear it! MME. DE SALLUS You wish to fly with me? JACQUES DE RANDOL Yes. MME. DE SALLUS From the bottom of your heart? JACQUES DE RANDOL From the bottom of my heart. MME. DE SALLUS To-day? JACQUES DE RANDOL Yes, and whenever you please. MME. DE SALLUS It is now a quarter to eight. My husband will be coming in directly, for we dine at eight. I shall be free at half past nine or ten o'clock. JACQUES DE RANDOL Where shall I wait for you? MME. DE SALLUS