HENRI. We are united now by a holy sacrament. That means more than any human oath. God is now watching over us, and one ought to forget everything which has happened before. Leocadie, a new age is dawning. Everything becomes holy now, Leocadie. Our kisses, however wild they may be, are holy from henceforth. Leocadie, my love, my wife! (He contemplates her with an ardent glance.) Isn't her expression quite different. Prosper, from what you ever knew her to have before? Is not her forehead pure! What has been is blotted out--not so, Leocadie? LEOCADIE. Surely, Henri. HENRI. And all is well. We leave Paris tomorrow. Leocadie makes her last appearance tonight at the Porte St. Martin, and I am placing here tonight for the last time. HOST. Are you mad, Henri? Do you want to desert me? Besides, the manager of the Porte St. Martin will never think of letting Leocadie go away. Why, she makes the fortune of his house. The young gentlemen stream thither, so they say. HENRI. Hold your peace. Leocadie will go with me. She will never desert me. Tell me that you will never desert me, Leocadie. (Brutally.) Tell me. LEOCADIE. I will never desert you. HENRI. If you did, I would ... (pause). I am sick of this life. I want quiet--I wish to have quiet. HOST. But what do you want to do then, Henri? It is quite ridiculous. I will make you a proposition. So far as I am concerned, take Leocadie from the Porte St. Martin, but let her stay here with me. I will engage her. Anyway, I have rather a dearth of talented women characters. HENRI. My mind is made up. Prosper. We are leaving town. We are going into the country. HOST. Into the country? But where? HENRI. To my old father, who lives alone in our poor village--I haven't seen him for seven years. He has almost given up hope of ever seeing his lost son again. He will welcome me with joy. PROSPER. What will you do in the country? In the country they all starve. People are a thousand times worse off there than in town. What on earth will you do there? You are not the man to till the fields. Don't imagine you are. HENRI. Time will prove that I am the man to do even that. HOST. Soon there won't be any corn growing in any part of France. You are going to certain misery. HENRI. To happiness. Prosper. Not so, Leocadie? We have often dreamt of it. I yearn for the peace of the wide plains. Yes, Prosper, I have seen myself in my dreams going over the fields with her, in an infinite stillness with the wonderful placid heavens over us. Ay, we will flee from this awful and dangerous town; the great peace will come over us. Is it not true, Leocadie, that we have often had such dreams? LEOCADIE. Yes, we have often had such dreams. HOST. Look here, Henri, you should consider it. I will gladly raise your wages and I will give Leocadie quite as much as you. LEOCADIE. Hear you that, Henri?