How little you understand certain kinds of men! Men like your husband, once inoculated with the poison of love,--which in them is nothing but brutal desire,--men like him, I say, when a woman they desire escapes or resists them, become raging beasts. They behave like madmen, like men possessed, with arms outstretched and lips wide open. They must love some one, no matter whom just as a mad dog with open jaws bites anything and everybody. The Santelli has unchained this raging brute, and you find yourself face to face with his dripping jaws. Take care! You call that love! It is nothing but animal passion. MME. DE SALLUS [_sarcastically_] Really, you are very unfair to him. I am afraid jealousy is blinding you. JACQUES DE RANDOL Oh, no, I am not deceiving myself, you may be sure. MME. DE SALLUS Yes, I think you are. Formerly my husband neglected and abandoned me, doubtless finding me very insipid; but now he finds me much improved, and has returned to me. It is very easy to understand, and moreover, it is the worse for him, for he _must_ believe that I have been a _faithful_ wife to him all my life. JACQUES DE RANDOL Madeline! MME. DE SALLUS Well, what? JACQUES DE RANDOL Does a girl cease to be a faithful wife, if, when deserted by the man who has assumed charge of her existence, and her happiness, and her love, and her ideals, she refuses to resign herself--young, beautiful, and full of hope--to eternal isolation and everlasting solitude? MME. DE SALLUS I think I have already told you that there are certain things which it is _not_ necessary to discuss, and this is one of them. [_The front door bell sounds twice._] Here is my husband. Please be silent. He is in a gloomy mood just now. JACQUES DE RANDOL [_rises_] I think I shall go. I am not in love with your husband any more, for many reasons, and it is difficult for me to be polite to him when I despise him, and when I know that he ought to despise me, and would despise me when I shake hands with him, did he know all. MME. DE SALLUS [_annoyed_] How many times must I tell you that all this is entirely out of place? SCENE II. (_The same, including_ M. de Sallus.) _Enter_ M. de Sallus, _evidently in a bad temper. He looks for a moment at_ Mme. de Sallus _and at_ Jacques de Randol, _who is taking his leave; then comes forward_. JACQUES DE RANDOL Ah! Sallus. M. DE SALLUS How are you, Randol? Surely you are not going because I came. JACQUES DE RANDOL No, but my time is up. I have an appointment at the club at midnight, and now it is half after eleven. [_They shake hands._] Have you come from the first performance of “Mahomet”? M. DE SALLUS Oh! Of course. JACQUES DE RANDOL People say that it should be a great success. M. DE SALLUS It doubtless will be. JACQUES DE RANDOL [_shakes hands again with_ De SALLUS _and_ Madame de Sallus] Well, till I see you again. M. DE SALLUS Till then, my dear fellow. JACQUES DE RANDOL Madame, adieu. MME. DE SALLUS