Not once; and that is more than eight months ago. He wished for news of her, and he gave me the task of getting it. I never found her and I have never been able to gain any knowledge of her, so cunningly did she arrange this flight of hers--this flight which was so n.o.ble and so self-sacrificing. [_Changing his tone._] But I don't know why I repeat all this. You know it just as well as I do, for I have told it to you a dozen times.

MME. DE RONCHARD

It is just as incredible at the twentieth time as at the first.

LeON

It is nevertheless the truth.

MME. DE RONCHARD [_sarcastically_]

Well, if it is really the truth, you were terribly wrong in helping Jean to break his connection with such an admirable woman.

LeON

Oh, no, Aunt, I only did my duty. You have even called me hairbrained, and perhaps you were right; but you know that I can be very serious when I wish. If this three-year-old _liaison_ had lasted until now, Jean would have been ruined.

MME. DE RONCHARD

Well, how could we help that?

LeON

Well, these things are frightful--these entanglements--I can't help using the word. It was my duty as a friend--and I wish to impress it upon you--to rescue Jean; and as a brother, it was my duty to marry my sister to such a man as he. The future will tell you whether I was right or not. [_Coaxingly._] And then, my dear Aunt, when later you have a little nephew or a little niece to take care of, to dandle in your arms, you will banish all these little spaniels that you are taking care of at Neuilly.

MME. DE RONCHARD

The poor little darlings! I, abandon them! Don't you know that I love them as a mother loves her children?

LeON

Oh, yes; you can become an aunt to them, then, because you will have to become a mother to your little nephew.

MME. DE RONCHARD

Oh, hold your tongue; you irritate me. (Jean _appears with_ Gilberte _for a moment at C._)

JEAN [_to servant entering_ R.]

Joseph, have you forgotten nothing, especially the flowers?

SERVANT

Monsieur and Madame may rest a.s.sured that everything has been done.

[_Exit servant_ L.]

LeON [_to_ Mme. de Ronchard]

Look at them; aren't they a bonny couple?

SCENE IV.

(_The same with_ Jean _and_ Gilberte.)

JEAN [_approaches_ Mme. de Ronchard _and speaks to her_]

Do you know of whom we were talking just now? We were talking of you.

LeON [_aside_]

Ahem! ahem!

JEAN

Yes; I was just saying that I had not made you a present on the occasion of my nuptials, because the choosing of it demanded a great deal of reflection.

MME. DE RONCHARD [_dryly_]

But Gilberte made me a very pretty one for you both, Monsieur.

JEAN

But that is not enough. I have been looking for something which I thought would be particularly acceptable to you; and do you know what I found? It is a very small thing, but I ask you, Madame, to be so good as to accept this little pocketbook, which holds some bank-notes, for the benefit of your dear little deserted pets. You can add to your home for these little pets some additional kennels on the sole condition that you will allow me from time to time to come and pet your little pensioners, and on the additional condition that you will not pick out the most vicious among them to greet me.

MME. DE RONCHARD [_greatly impressed_]

With all my heart, I thank you. How good of you to think of my poor little orphans!

LeON [_whispers to_ Jean]

You diplomat, you!

JEAN

There is nothing extraordinary about it, Madame. I am very fond of dumb animals. They are really the foster-brothers of man, sacrificed for them, slaves to them, and in many cases their food. They are the true martyrs of the world.

MME. DE RONCHARD

What you say is very true, Monsieur, and I have often thought of it in that way. For instance, take those poor horses, scourged and beaten by coachmen in the streets.

LeON [_with sarcastic emphasis_]

And the pheasants, Auntie, and the partridges and the blackc.o.c.k falling on all sides under a hail of lead, flying panic-stricken before the horrible ma.s.sacre of the guns.

MME. DE RONCHARD