The Essential Guy de Maupassant Collection. Guy de Maupassant
DE RANDOL
Well, now, be cautious; be careful and cunning; guard your reputation and your name. Make neither commotion nor scandal, and await your opportunity.
MME. DE SALLUS [_ironically_]
And must I continue to be very charming when he returns to me, and be ready for all his fancies?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Oh, Madeline, I speak to you in the truest friendship.
MME. DE SALLUS [_bitterly_]
In the truest friendship!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Yea, as a friend who loves you far too dearly to advise you to commit any folly.
MME. DE SALLUS
And loves me just enough to advise me to be complaisant to a man I despise.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I! Never, never. My most ardent desire is to be with you forever. Get a divorce, and then if you still love me, let us wed.
MME. DE SALLUS
Oh, yes, yes--two years from now. Certainly, you _are_ a patient lover!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
But supposing I were to carry you off, he would take you back to-morrow; would shut you up in his house, and would never get a divorce lest you should become my wife.
MME. DE SALLUS
Well, do you mean to say I could fly nowhere but to your house, that I could not hide myself in such fashion that he would never find me?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Yes, you could hide yourself, but it would be necessary for you to live abroad under another name, or buried in the country, till death. That is the curse of our love. In three months you would hate me. I never will let you commit such a folly.
MME. DE SALLUS
I thought you loved me enough to fly with me, but it seems that I am mistaken. Adieu!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Madeline, listen to me for God's--
MME. DE SALLUS Jacques, take me, or leave me--answer!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Madeline, I implore you!
MME. DE SALLUS
Never! Adieu! [_Rises and goes to the door_.]
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Once more I implore you, Madeline, listen to me.
MME. DE SALLUS
Oh, no, no; adieu! [De Randol _takes her by the arms; she frees herself angrily_.] Unhand me! Let me go, or I shall call for help!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Call if you will, but listen to me. I would not that you should ever be able to reproach me for the madness that you meditate. God forbid that you should hate me, but, bound to me by this flight that you propose, you would carry with you forever a keen and unavailing regret that I allowed you to do it.
MME. DE SALLUS
Let me go! I despise you! Let me go!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Well, if you wish to fly, why, let us fly.
MME. DE SALLUS
Oh, no, not now. I know you now. It is too late. Let me go.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I 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 _coup?_. [_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