Yes, I am not laughing, or rather I do not laugh any more. [_In lighter tone_.] Then you are not jealous of my husband? And yet you know he is the only man who has authority over me. JACQUES DE RANDOL It is just because he has authority that I am not jealous. A woman's heart gives nothing to the man who has authority. MME. DE SALLUS My dear, a husband's right is a positive thing; it is a title-deed that he can lock up--just as my husband has for more than two years--but it is also one that he can use at any given moment, as lately he has seemed inclined to do. JACQUES DE RANDOL [_astonished_] You tell me that your husband-- MME. DE SALLUS Yes. JACQUES DE RANDOL Impossible! MME. DE SALLUS [_bridles_] And why impossible? JACQUES DE RANDOL Because your husband has--has--other occupations. MME. DE SALLUS Well, it pleases him to vary them, it seems. JACQUES DE RANDOL Jesting apart, Madeline, what has happened? MME. DE SALLUS Ah! Ah! Then you _are_ becoming jealous of him. JACQUES DE RANDOL Madeline, I implore you; tell me, are you mocking me, or are you speaking seriously? MME. DE SALLUS I am speaking seriously, indeed, very seriously. JACQUES DE RANDOL Then what has happened? MME. DE SALLUS Well, you know my position, although I have never told you all my past life. It is all very simple and very brief. At the age of nineteen I married the Count de Sallus, who fell in love with me after he had seen me at the Opéra-Comique. He already knew my father's lawyer. He was very nice to me in those early days; yes, very nice, and I really believed he loved me. As for myself, I was very circumspect in my behavior toward him, very circumspect indeed, so that he could never cast a shadow of reproach on my name. JACQUES DE RANDOL Well, did you love him? MME. DE SALLUS Good gracious! Why ask such questions? JACQUES DE RANDOL Then you did love him? MME. DE SALLUS Yes and no. If I loved him, it was the love of a little fool; but I certainly never told him, for positively I do not know how to show love. JACQUES DE RANDOL I can vouch for that! MME. DE SALLUS Well, it is possible that I cared for him sometimes, idiotically, like a timid, restless, trembling, awkward, little girl, always in fear of that disturbing thing--the love of a man--that disturbing thing that is sometimes so sweet! As for him,--you know him. He was a sweetheart, a society sweetheart, who are always the worst of all. Such men really have a lasting affection only for those girls who are fitting companions for clubmen--girls who have a habit of telling doubtful stories and bestowing depraved kisses. It seems to me that to attract and to hold such people, the nude and obscene are necessary both in word and in body--unless--unless--it is true that men are incapable of loving any woman for a length of time.