Pauline (interrupting him)
Good-night, father.

The General
You naughty child!

Pauline
Keep my secret, or I will bring you a son-in-law that will drive you
wild.

(Pauline enters her own apartment.)

Sceneeighth

The General (alone)
There must certainly be some key to this enigma!  It must be
discovered!  Yes, and Gertrude shall discover it!

(Scene curtain.)

Scene ninth

(Pauline’s chamber; a small plain room with a bed in the centre and a round table at the left; the entrance is at the right, but there is a secret entrance on the left.)

Pauline At last I am alone!  At last I can be natural!  Married?  My Ferdinand married?  If this is so, he is the falsest, foulest, vilest of men!  And I could kill him!  Kill him?  But I myself could not survive one hour the knowledge that he was actually married.  My stepmother I detest!  And if she becomes my enemy, there will be war between us, and war in earnest.  It would be terrible, for I should tell my father all I know.  (She looks at her watch.) Half-past eleven, and he cannot come before midnight, when the whole household is asleep.  Poor Ferdinand!  He has to risk his life for a few minutes’ chat with her he loves!  That is what I call true love!  Such perils men will not undergo for every woman!  But what would I not undergo for him!  If my father surprised us, I would be the one to take the first blow.  Oh!  To suspect the man you love is to suffer greater torment than to lose him!  If he dies, you can follow him in death; but doubt—­is the cruelest of separations!—­Ah!  I hear him.

Scenetenth

Ferdinand and Pauline (who locks the door).

Pauline
Are you married?

Ferdinand
What a joke!  Wouldn’t I have told you?

Pauline
Ah! (She sinks back on a chair, then falls upon her knees.) Holy
Virgin, what vows shall I make to thee? (She kisses Ferdinand’s hand.)
And you, a thousand blessings on your head!

Ferdinand
Who could have told you such a foolish thing?

Pauline
My stepmother.

Ferdinand Why, she knows all about me, and if she did not, she would set spies to discover all; for suspicion with such women as that is certitude!  Listen, Pauline, moments now are precious.  It was Madame de Grandchamp who brought me into this house.

Pauline
And why?

Ferdinand
Because she is in love with me.

Pauline
How horrible!  And what of my father?

Ferdinand
She was in love with me before her marriage.

Pauline
She is in love with you; but you, are you in love with her?

Ferdinand
Do you think if I were, I should have remained in this house?

Pauline
And she is still in love with you?