PEt.i.tPRe

But--but--

JEAN [_determinedly to_ M. Pet.i.tpre]

Monsieur, I shall not gainsay your will in anything. I shall do nothing without your approval. I have not returned here to contest your authority or to speak of rights; but I respectfully ask permission to remain alone a few minutes with--my wife! Consider that this is perhaps our last interview and that our future depends upon it.

MME. DE RONCHARD

It is solely the future of Gilberte which concerns me.

JEAN [_to_ Mme. de Ronchard]

I appeal simply to your heart, Madame; your heart, which has suffered.

Do not forget that your irritation and your bitterness against me come from the misfortune that another man has inflicted upon you. Your life has been broken by him. Do not wish the same for me. You have been unhappy; married scarcely a year. [_Points to_ Gilberte.] Will you say that she shall be married scarcely a day, and that later she shall talk of her broken life--ceaselessly guarding in her mind the memory of this evening's disaster? [_At a movement of_ Mme. de Ronchard.] I know you to be kind, although you deny it, and I promise you, Madame, that if I remain Gilberte's husband, I shall love you as a son, as a son worthy of you.

MME. DE RONCHARD [_very much moved_]

A son! He has stirred me deeply! [_Whispers to_ Pet.i.tpre.] Come away, let us leave them alone. [_Embraces_ Gilberte.]

PEt.i.tPRe [_to_ Jean]

Well, so be it, Monsieur. [_Rises and exit_ C., _offering his arm to_ Mme. de Ronchard.]

MARTINEL [_to_ Leon]

They are going to talk with that [_touches his heart_]; it is the only true eloquence.

[_Exit with_ Leon C.]

SCENE VII.

(Gilberte and Jean.)

JEAN

You know all, do you not?

GILBERTE

Yes. And I have been deeply wounded.

JEAN

I hope you do not accuse me of lying or of any other dissimulation.

GILBERTE

Oh, no!

JEAN

Do you blame me for having left you this evening?

GILBERTE

I blame no one who does his duty.

JEAN

You did not know this woman--and she is dead.

GILBERTE

It is just because she is dead that she troubles me thus.

JEAN

Impossible; you must have another reason. [_With hesitation._] The child?

GILBERTE [_quickly_]

No, no! don't deceive yourself. The poor little darling! it is not his fault. No, I suffer from something which is peculiar to myself, which can come only from me, and which I cannot confess to you. It is a sorrow deep in my heart, so keen, when I felt it spring to birth under the words of my brother and your uncle, that, should I ever experience it again when living with you as your wife, I should never be able to dispel it.

JEAN

What is it?

GILBERTE

I cannot tell it. [_Sits_ L.]

JEAN [_stands_]

Listen to me. It is necessary that at this moment there should not be between us the shadow of a misunderstanding. All our life depends upon it. You are my wife, but I admit that you are absolutely free after what has happened. I will do as you wish. I am ready to agree to everything you desire, even to a divorce if you demand it. But what will happen to me after that I do not know, for I love you so that the thought of losing you after winning you will throw me mercilessly into some desperate resolve. [_Sees_ Gilberte _moved._] I do not seek to soften you, to move you--I simply tell you the naked truth. I feel, and I have felt during the whole night, through all the shocks and horrible emotions of the drama that has just been enacted, that you hold for me the keenest wound. If you banish me now, I am a lost man.

GILBERTE [_much moved_]

Do you really love me as much as that?

JEAN

With a love that I feel is ineffaceable.