I say to myself, here is a man who is very much in love with me. So far as I am concerned, I am perfectly free, morally, since for two years past I have altogether ceased to please my husband. Now, since this man loves me, why should I not love him? JACQUES DE RANDOL You are philosophic--and cruel. MME. DE SALLUS On the contrary, I have _not_ been cruel. Of what do you complain? JACQUES DE RANDOL Stop! you anger me with this continual raillery. Ever since I began to love you, you have tortured me in this manner, and now I do not even know whether you have the slightest affection for me. MME. DE SALLUS Well, you must admit that I have always been--good-natured. JACQUES DE RANDOL Oh, you have played a queer little game! From the day I first met you I felt that you were coquetting with me, coquetting mysteriously, obscurely, coquetting as only you can without showing it to others. Little by little you conquered me with looks, with smiles, with pressures of the hand, without compromising yourself, without pledging yourself, without revealing yourself. You have been horribly upright--and seductive. I have loved you with all my soul, yes, sincerely and loyally, and to-day I do not know what feeling you have in the depths of your heart, what thoughts you have hidden in your brain; in fact, I know-I know nothing. I look at you, and I see a woman who seems to have chosen me, and seems also to have forgotten that she _has_ chosen me. Does she love me, or is she tired of me? Has she simply made an experiment--taken a lover in order to see, to know, to taste,--without desire, hunger, or thirst? There are days when I ask myself if among those who love you and who tell you so unceasingly there is not one whom you really love. MME. DE SALLUS Good heavens! Really, there are _some_ things into which it is not necessary to inquire. JACQUES DE RANDOL Oh, how hard you are! Your tone tells me that you do not love me. MME. DE SALLUS Now, what _are_ you complaining about? Of things I do not say?--because--I do not think you have anything else to reproach me with. JACQUES DE RANDOL Forgive me, I am jealous. MME. DE SALLUS Of whom? JACQUES DE RANDOL I do not know. I am jealous of everything that I do not know about you. MME. DE SALLUS Yes, and without my knowing anything about these things, too. JACQUES DE RANDOL Forgive me, I love you too much--so much that everything disturbs me. MME. DE SALLUS Everything? JACQUES DE RANDOL Yes, everything. MME. DE SALLUS Are you jealous of my husband? JACQUES DE RANDOL [_amazed_] What an idea! MME. DE SALLUS [_dryly_] Well, you are wrong. JACQUES DE RANDOL Always this raillery! MME. DE SALLUS No, I want to speak to you seriously about him, and to ask your advice. JACQUES DE RANDOL About your husband? MME. DE SALLUS [_seriously_]