Yes, Lévêque. What does this questioning mean? It is just as I told you, or else I know nothing about it. Now, Henriette Lévêque, 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? LÉON 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. LÉON 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. LÉON 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? LÉON 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? LÉON 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.]