BRIGNAC. You don’t love me any more, then? LUCIE. No. BRIGNAC. Ha. Another story beginning. Since when? LUCIE. I’ve never loved you. BRIGNAC. All the same you married me. LUCIE. I didn’t love you. BRIGNAC. This is nice news. Go on. LUCIE. You’re only another victim of the morals you were championing just now. BRIGNAC. I don’t know what you mean. LUCIE. When you asked me to marry you I was tired of waiting in poverty for the man I could have loved. I didn’t want to become an old maid. I took you, but I knew you came to me because the girls with money wouldn’t have you. You were on the shelf, too. I made up my mind to try and love you loyally. BRIGNAC. Well, then? LUCIE. The first time I was going to have a child you left me for other women. Since then I have only put up with you. I was too cowardly not to. You may as well know it. I wanted my first child; the others I’ve had only because you made me. Each time you left me—I was so ugly! Yes; ugly through you! You left me at home, alone, dreary, repulsive, to come back from the arms of some prostitute, full of hypocritical solicitude for my health! After the fatigue of nursing I begged for a rest, to have a breathing space, so that I might have some life of my own; and when I demanded only to have children at my own wish, you laughed like a self-satisfied fool. Oh, your fatuous pride, your base egoism, your utter want of thought for the future of your children and the life of your wife! So you forced on me the labor and the agony and the danger of having another child. What did it matter to you? It flattered your vanity to make merry with your friends and give yourself the airs of a fine fellow. Idiot! BRIGNAC. I’ve had enough of this. You’re my wife! LUCIE. I won’t be your wife any more. I won’t have any more children. BRIGNAC. Pray why? LUCIE. Didn’t Dr. Hourtin tell you anything? BRIGNAC. Yes. All right. I’ll do what he said. There, does that content you? Come to bed. LUCIE. No. BRIGNAC. You haven’t looked at my roses. Come, isn’t he a loving husband, your little Julien? LUCIE. Leave me alone. You’re drunk. BRIGNAC. You know I’m not. Come and give me a kiss! LUCIE. You stink of alcohol. Let me go. BRIGNAC [_low_] I want you. [_He kisses her_]. LUCIE [_tearing herself away_] Faugh! [_She wipes her mouth furiously_]. BRIGNAC. Enough of that, do you hear? [_He seizes her brutally_]. That’s enough. LUCIE. You hurt me! Let me go. BRIGNAC. Be kind now. How well you look when your temper’s up! Pretty pet. Mustn’t be naughty. Come. LUCIE. I won’t. BRIGNAC. Then I’ll make you! [_They struggle, with low cries, panting_]. LUCIE [_at the end of her strength_] I can’t! I can’t! _He puts her on a chair; then goes to open the door of the bedroom and turns on the electric light. The bed is seen, a vision of white sheets. Brignac comes to his wife._ LUCIE [_mad with terror_] The cave man! The cave man!