Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales. Guy de Maupassant

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СКАЧАТЬ have done exactly what I ought to have done; I have said exactly what I ought to have said; consequently, I am no longer responsible for you, and you have no right to reproach me with the consequences. So let us fly.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Oh, no, it is too late, and I do not care to accept sacrifices.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      There is no more any question of sacrifice. To fly with you is my most ardent desire.

      MME. DE SALLUS [astonished]

      You are mad.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Well, suppose I am mad. That is only natural, since I love you.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      What do you mean?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      I mean what I say. I love you; I have nothing else to say. Let us fly.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Ah, you were altogether too cautious just now to become so brave all at once.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Will you ever understand me? Listen to me. When I first realized that I adored you, I made a solemn vow concerning what might happen between you and me. The man who falls in love with a woman such as you, a woman married yet deserted; a slave in fact yet morally free, institutes between her and himself a bond which only she can break. The woman risks everything. Ay, it is just because she does this, because she gives everything – her heart, her body, her soul, her honor, her life, because she has foreseen all the miseries, all the dangers, all the misfortunes that can happen, because she dares to take so bold, and fearless a step, and because she is ready and determined to hazard everything – a husband who could kill her, and a world that would scorn her – it is for all this and for the heroism of her conjugal infidelity, that her lover, in taking her, ought to foresee all, to guard her against every ill that can possibly happen. I have nothing more to say. I spoke at first as a calm and foreseeing man who wished to protect you against everything – now I am simply and only the man who loves you. Order me as you please.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      That is all very prettily said; but is it true?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      I swear it!

      MME. DE SALLUS

      You wish to fly with me?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Yes.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      From the bottom of your heart?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      From the bottom of my heart.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      To-day?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Yes, and whenever you please.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      It is now a quarter to eight. My husband will be coming in directly, for we dine at eight. I shall be free at half past nine or ten o’clock.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Where shall I wait for you?

      MME. DE SALLUS

      At the end of the street in a coupé. [The bell rings.] There he is, and for the last time, thank God!

      SCENE II

      (The same characters, and M. de Sallus.)

      M. DE SALLUS [enters. To Jacques de Randol, who has risen to take his leave]

      Well, you are not going again, are you? Why, it seems that I need only come in to make you take your leave.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      No, no, my dear fellow; you don’t make me go, but I must.

      M. DE SALLUS

      That is just what I say. You always go the very moment I come in. Of course, I understand that a husband is less attractive than a wife. But, at least, let me believe that I am not objectionable to you. [Laughs.]

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      On the contrary, my dear fellow, you know I like you. And if you would acquire the habit of coming into your own house without ringing the bell, you would never find me taking my leave when you come.

      M. DE SALLUS

      How is that? Is it not natural to ring the door bell?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Oh, yes; but a ring of the bell always makes me feel that I must go, and surely, coming into your own house, you can dispense with that habit.

      M. DE SALLUS

      I don’t understand you.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Why, it is very simple. When I visit people whom I like, such as Madame de Sallus and yourself, I do not expect to meet the Paris that flutters from house to house in the evening, gossiping and scandalizing. I have had my experience of gossip and tittle-tattle. It needs only one of these talkative dames or men to take away all the pleasure there is for me in visiting the lady on whom I happen to have called. Sometimes when I am anchored perforce upon my seat, I feel lost; I do not know how to get away. I have to take part in the whirlpool of foolish chatter. I know all the set questions and answers better than I do the catechism itself, and it bores me to have to remain until the very end and hear the very last opinion of some fool upon the comedy, or the book, or the divorce, or the marriage, or the death that is being discussed. Now, do you understand why I always get up and go at the sound of a bell?

      M. DE SALLUS [laughs]

      What you say is very true. Drawing-rooms now are not habitable from four o’clock to seven, and our wives have no right to complain if we leave them to go to the club.

      MME. DE SALLUS [sarcastically]

      Nevertheless, I do not see my way to receiving ballet girls, or chorus girls, or actresses, or so-called painters, poets, musicians, and others – in order to keep you near me.

      M. DE SALLUS

      I do not ask so much as that. All I desire is a few witty fellows, some charming women, and by no means a crowd.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      You talk nonsense; you cannot pick and choose.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      No, truly, you cannot sift and strain the flow of idiocy that you meet in the drawing-rooms of to-day.

      M. DE SALLUS

      Why?

      MME. DE SALLUS

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