Let him come! I'll smile at him--and he's no man if he doesn't keep quiet after that! Why, your old gardener would cut his hand off for me any day of his life--just for a bit of wheedling!--It can't be helped--they all love me! Pierre (_aside_). Beast! Julia. What were you muttering then? (Pierre _throws himself down before her and weeps._) Pierre! Crying?--Oh!--Please don't--or I'll cry too. And my head aches so! Pierre (_softly but nervously and with hatred_). Do you know what I'd like to do? Strangle you! Julia. Ha! Ha! Ha!--(_pityingly_) Dear me! Those soft fingers--so weak!--My little boy has read in a naughty book that people strangle their loves--and so he wants to do some strangling too! Pierre (_rising_). Well, what's to become of you? How much longer is the game to last in this pavilion? Julia. As long as the roses bloom--that was agreed, you know. Pierre. And then? Julia. Bah! Then!--Why think of it? I'm here now, here under the protection of your lovely, ghostly great-grandmother. No one suspects--no one dreams! My husband is searching for me the whole world over!--That was a clever notion of mine--writing him from Brussels--Nora, last act, last scene--and then coming straight back again! I'll wager he's in Paris now, sitting at the Cafe des Anglais, and looking up and down the street--now toward the Place de l'Opera, now toward the Madeleine. Will you wager? I'll go you anything you say. Well, go on, wager! Pierre. On anything else you wish--but not on that! Julia. Why not? Pierre. Because your husband was at the castle this morning. Julia (_rising hastily_). My husband--was--at the castle----? Pierre. What's so surprising about that? He always used to come, you know--our nearest neighbour--and all that sort of thing. Julia. Did he have a reason for coming? Pierre. A special reason?--No. Julia. Pierre--you're concealing something from me! Pierre (_hesitating_). Nothing that I know of. No. Julia. Why didn't you come at once? And now--why have you waited to tell me? Pierre (_sullenly_). You're hearing it soon enough. Julia. Pierre, what happened? Tell me, exactly! Pierre. Well, he came in the little runabout--without a groom--and asked for mamma. I naturally pretended to be going out. But you know how she always insists on my staying with her.