FELIAT. Oh, don't look! [_Suddenly stopping, half to himself_] Though I must say-- THERESE [_laughing_] What must you say? FELIAT. Nothing. LUCIENNE. I know. You mean that we're just as bad. FELIAT. No, no, not as bad. LUCIENNE. Yes, yes; well--almost. [_Feliat makes a sign of protest_] I saw you watching us yesterday after the rehearsal! You saw I was flirting, and I know you imagined all sorts of horrid things. Our little flirtations are not what you think. When we flirt we play at love-making with our best boys, just as once upon a time we played at mothering with our dolls. FELIAT. But that doesn't justify-- THERESE. You don't understand. People spoil us while we're children, and then look after us so tremendously carefully when we grow up that we guess there must be delightful and dangerous possibilities about us. Flirting is our way of feeling for these possibilities. LUCIENNE. We're sharpening our weapons. THERESE. But the foils have buttons on them, and the pistols are only loaded with powder. LUCIENNE. And it's extremely amusing and does no harm to anybody. THERESE. Monsieur Feliat, you've read bad books. Nowadays girls like us are neither bread-and-butter misses nor demi-vierges. We're perfectly respectable young people. Quite capable and self-possessed and, at the same time, quite straight and very happy. FELIAT. I'm perfectly sure of it, my dear young ladies. But you know I've had a great deal of experience. THERESE. Oh, _experience_! Well, you know-- LUCIENNE. Oh, _experience_! THERESE. You say you have experience; that only means you know about the past better than we do. But we know much better than you do about the present. FELIAT. I think those girls there are playing a dangerous game. THERESE. You needn't have the smallest anxiety about them. FELIAT. That way of going on might get them into great trouble. THERESE. It won't, I assure you. Monsieur Feliat, believe me, you know nothing about it. LUCIENNE. We're clever enough to be able to take care of ourselves. FELIAT. But there are certain things that take you by storm. LUCIENNE. Not us. Flirting is an amusement, a distraction, a game. THERESE. Shall we say a safety valve? LUCIENNE. There's not a single one of us who doesn't understand the importance of running straight. And, to do them justice, these boys have no idea of tempting us to do anything else. What they want, what we all really want, is a quite conventional, satisfactory marriage. FELIAT. I most heartily approve; but in my days so much wisdom didn't usually come from such fascinating little mouths. THERESE. Now how can you blame us when you see that really we think exactly as you do yourself? FELIAT. In my days girls went neither to the Lycee nor to have gymnastic lessons, and they were none the less straight.