ANNETTE. We can’t bring an action against them. He told me so. LUCIE. Then there are other ways of defending you. Believe me, I’m sure of it. ANNETTE. There are _not_. LUCIE. There are. And even if there weren’t, you mustn’t talk of dying at your age. Am I not here? Annette, Annette, my little one, I will help you through this trouble! You believe me, don’t you? You know how I love you? You know that mother left you in my care? I’ll help you and comfort you and love you so well that you’ll forget. ANNETTE. Forget! LUCIE. Yes, yes; people forget. If it weren’t for that no one would be alive. ANNETTE. I feel as if I had lived a hundred years. Life is hard, hard; too hard. LUCIE. Life is hard for all women. ANNETTE. It’s worse for me than for anyone else. LUCIE. Oh, Annette! If you only knew! ANNETTE. When I’ve seen mothers with their little children I’ve had such dreams. LUCIE. If you only knew! Those mothers had their own troubles. Nearly every woman carries about with her the corpse of the woman she might have been. ANNETTE. Ah, Lucie, dear, it’s easy for you to talk. LUCIE. Darling, you mustn’t think you’re alone in your sorrow. I seem to you to be happy with my children and my husband, and you think my happiness makes light of your distress. But you’re wrong. Your misery makes me so weak, I must tell you what I wanted always to hide from you. My husband does not love me. I don’t love him. Can you realize the loneliness of that? If you knew what it means to live with an enemy and to have to endure his caresses! ANNETTE. My poor dear! LUCIE. So you see, Annette, you mustn’t think about dying, because perhaps I shall want your help as much as you want mine. I heard the door shut. It’s Julien. ANNETTE. Don’t tell him: please don’t. Spare me the shame. LUCIE. Go away, now. ANNETTE. You’ve given me back a little hope. Dearest sister help me, I have nobody else. LUCIE. Go! _She goes: Brignac comes in._ BRIGNAC [_making for the door of his office_] Not gone to bed yet? I had a stroke of luck at the club. I met the editor of the ‘Independent’ and I promised to write him an article about the minister’s circular for to-morrow’s paper. An official’s day is sometimes pretty full, eh? LUCIE. Julien, I have something very important to tell you. A great misfortune has happened to us. BRIGNAC. Good heavens, what is it? The children? LUCIE. No, it has to do with Annette. BRIGNAC. You said she didn’t come to dinner because of a headache. Have you been concealing something? LUCIE. She is not ill, but she is cruelly and grievously unhappy. BRIGNAC. Nonsense! Unhappiness at her age! A love affair. Some marriage she had set her heart on. LUCIE. Yes, a marriage she had set her heart on. BRIGNAC. Ouf! I breathe again. What a fright you gave me! _That’s_ not of much consequence. LUCIE. Yes, it’s of the greatest consequence. Julien, I appeal to your heart, to your kindliness, to your best feelings. BRIGNAC. But what’s the matter?