ARAMINTE: Tell me your secrets. BELISE: Open your heart to me. ARAMINTE: Oh, well. You will doubtless have learned from the notary that I have taken this money. BELISE: Your business. You are right to take your wealth. For each can dispose of hers as she pleases. ARAMINTE: To place it elsewhere, I thought I had the right to take it. BELISE: You don't owe me any accounting. I have taken mine as well. ARAMINTE: So much the better, sister, so much the better. On that account I calm my curiosity. BELISE: You have good sense. You are not being irritating. ARAMINTE: One is liberal with you because you are charming. BELISE: Alas, I never irritated you about anything. Except about marriage and that was for your good. If boredom at being a maiden made you do it, I would be compassionate, like a tender sister--for a weakness. ARAMINTE: You will never have such a weakness. If you come to that-- and the wisest have--far from condemning you I would be complaisant about it. BELISE: Ah, be sure of my condescension. ARAMINTE: Sometimes, we must be humane to each other. BELISE: Alas, I, in getting married would authorize you to do so, without wishing you ill for it. ARAMINTE: Yes, marry quickly, yes. I would be ravished, for then I could-- BELISE: What? Why? ARAMINTE: But, sister-- BELISE: Could you have been capable of letting your heart be surprised? ARAMINTE: And you? BELISE: But you-- ARAMINTE: But you-- BELISE: Eh! ARAMINTE: But yes. BELISE: Me, too. ARAMINTE: Embrace me, sis. BELISE: Sis, how I love you. Yes, we are truly sisters today. ARAMINTE: You know, good hearts are always made for love. You would have stayed a maid. What folly! BELISE: Like you, I wonder how we made that imprudent vow thirty years ago. ARAMINTE: The one you love, you have freely. Without doubt, dear sister, wise as you are, you have meditated over the choice that you've made. BELISE: You whose taste is so fine, so exquisite, undoubtedly you made your choice with discernment. ARAMINTE: Lively, playful, humorous. He's an amiable young man. BELISE: The one that I love is young and yet respectable; wise, grave, self possessed. ARAMINTE: Mine always has the air-- BELISE: A solidity-- ARAMINTE: Brilliant like a flash of lightning. BELISE: Who rarely speaks but with weight and measure. ARAMINTE: Mine talks ceaselessly and about everything. But always well. BELISE: Like you, I see you and I have chosen our spouses according to our characters. ARAMINTE: It's prudent. BELISE: It's wisdom. Mine has wealth, birth, esteem. He's the Senechal Groux. ARAMINTE: That's a man who is known. Like you, I have found a noble spouse. But of ancient nobility. A distinguished man. He's the Chevalier Cique. BELISE: They speak well of him. Your vote, sister, and the voice of the people honor him. ARAMINTE: The public ought to praise us for our choices, But, in other respects, we've had strange obstacles. This forfeiture, for example--