Then you would like to carry me off?
Unhappily, I cannot.
Then what?
I do not know. I only know this life is wearing
me out.
It is just because there are so many obstacles in
the way of your love that it does not fade.
Oh! Madeline, can you say that?
Mme. De Sallus [softening]
Believe me, dear, if your love has to endure these
hardships, it is because it is not lawful love.
Well, I never met a woman as positive as you.
Then you think that if chance made me your husband,
I should cease to love you?
Not all at once, perhaps, but—eventually.
What you say is revolting to me.
Nevertheless, it is quite true. You know that
when a confectioner hires a greedy saleswoman he says
to her, “Eat all the sweets you wish, my dear.”
She stuffs herself for eight days, and then she is
satisfied for the rest of her life.
Ah! Indeed! But why do you include me in
that class?
Really, I do not know—perhaps as a joke!
Please do not mock me.
I say to myself, here is a man who is very much in
love with me. So far as I am concerned, I am
perfectly free, morally, since for two years past
I have altogether ceased to please my husband.
Now, since this man loves me, why should I not love
him?
You are philosophic—and cruel.
On the contrary, I have not been cruel.
Of what do you complain?
Stop! you anger me with this continual raillery.
Ever since I began to love you, you have tortured
me in this manner, and now I do not even know whether
you have the slightest affection for me.
