Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales

(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.

Gilberte. Did you love her?

Jean. I did indeed love her. I experienced a tender attachment for a gentle and devoted girl. [_In a low voice, with passion._] Listen: that which I am going to tell you is unworthy, perhaps infamous, but I am only a human being, feeble as anyone else. Well, just now, in the presence of this poor, dying girl, my eyes were filled with tears and my sobs choked me--all my being vibrated with sorrow; but at the bottom of my soul, in the depths of my being, I thought only of you.

GILBERTE [_rises quickly_]

Do you mean that?

JEAN [_simply_]

I cannot lie to you.

Gilberte. Well, do you know what made me suffer just now when my brother told me of this intrigue and death? I can tell it to you now. I was jealous! It was unworthy of me, wasn't it? Jealous of this poor, dead woman! But he spoke so well of her as to move me, and I felt that she loved you so much that you might find me perhaps indifferent and cold after her, and that hurt me so! I had so much fear of experiencing that that I thought of renouncing you.

Jean. And now?--Gilberte! Gilberte!

GILBERTE [_extends her hands_]

I am here, Jean! take me!

Jean. Ah, how grateful I am. [_Kisses her hands; then immediately after, with emotion._] But here another anguish seizes me. I have promised this poor woman to take and cherish this child in my own home. [Gilberte _makes a movement_.] That is not all. Do you know what her last thought, her last prayer was? She entreated me to commend the child to you.

Gilberte. To me!

Jean. To you, Gilberte.

GILBERTE [_profoundly moved_]

She did this, the poor woman? Did she believe that I would take--

Jean. She hoped it, and in that hope her death was made easier.

GILBERTE [_in exalted mood, crosses_ R.]

Yes, I will take it! where is it?

Jean. At my house.

Gilberte. At your house? You must go to it immediately.

Jean. What! leave you now, at this moment?

Gilberte. We will go together, since I was to have accompanied you to your house this evening.

JEAN [_joyously_]

Oh, Gilberte! But your father will not let us go.

Gilberte. Well, do you know what we must do, since my packing is finished, and my maid awaits me at your house? You must carry me off.

Jean. Carry you off?

Gilberte. Give me my cloak and let us go. All can be explained tomorrow. [_Shows the cloak that she had left upon the chair in the first act._] My cloak, please.

JEAN [_picks up the cloak quickly and throws it over her shoulders_]

You are the most adorable creature! [Gilberte _takes his arm and they go toward door_ R.]