The Essential Guy de Maupassant Collection. Guy de Maupassant

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СКАЧАТЬ you pardon me if I write a note? [_Sits at desk at the other end of the drawing-room._]

      MME. DE SALLUS [_to_ Jacques de Randol]

      What has happened?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Oh, nothing; everything is all right.

      MME, DE SALLUS

      When do we go?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Not at all.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Are you mad? Why?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Please don't ask me now about it.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      I am sure that he is laying a trap for us.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Not at all. He is very quiet, very contented, and has absolutely no suspicion.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Then what does it all mean?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Now, be calm. He is happy, I tell you.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      That is not true.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      I tell you it is. He has made me the confidant of all his happiness.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      It is just a trick; he wishes to watch us.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Oh, no; he is confiding and conciliatory. The only fear he has is of you.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Of me?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Yes; in the same way that you are, all the time, afraid of him.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Great heavens! You have lost your head. You are talking at random.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Listen--I am sure that he intends to go out this evening.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Well, in that case, let us go out too.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      No, no,--I tell you there is nothing more for us to fear.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      What nonsense! You will end by maddening me with your blindness.

      M. DE SALLUS [_from the other end of the drawing-room_]

      My dear, I have some good news for you. I have been able to get another night at the Opera for you every week.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Really, it is very good of you to afford me the opportunity of applauding Madame Santelli so often.

      M. DE SALLUS [_from the same place_]

      Well, she is very clever.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      And everybody says she is charming.

      MME. DE SALLUS [_irritably_]

      Yes; it is only such women who please men.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      You are unjust.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Oh, my dear Randol; it is only for such women that men commit follies, and [_sarcastically_], understand me, the measure of a man's folly is often the measure of his love.

      M. DE SALLUS [_from the same place_]

      Oh, no, my dear girl,--men do not marry them, and marriage is the only real folly that a man can commit with a woman.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      A beautiful idea, truly, when a woman has to endure all man's caprices.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Oh, no, not having anything to lose, they have nothing to risk.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Ah, men are sad creatures! They marry a young girl because she is demure and self-contained, and they leave her on the morrow to dangle after a girl who is not young and who certainly is not demure, her chief attraction being that all the rich and well-known men about town have at one time been in her favor. The more danglers she has after her, the more she is esteemed, the more she is sought after, and the more she is respected; that is to say, with that kind of Parisian respect which accrues to a woman in the degree of her notoriety--a notoriety due either to the scandal she creates, or the scandal men create about her. Ah, yes, you men are so nice in these things!

      M. DE SALLUS [_laughs gently_]

      Take care! One would think you were jealous.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      I? Jealous? For whom do you take me? [_The butler announces_.] Madame is served. [_Hands a letter to_ M. de Sallus.]

      MME. DE SALLUS [_to_ Jacques de Randol]

      Your arm, M. Jacques de Randol.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL [_in a low tone_]

      How I love you!

      MME. DE SALLUS [_indifferently_]

      Just a little, I suppose.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Ah, no; with all my soul!

      M. DE SALLUS [_after reading his letter_]

      Come along, then, let us go to dinner. I have to go out this evening.

      _Curtain._

      MUSOTTE

      OR

      A CRITICAL SITUATION

      A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS

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