Vernon
Madame!

Gertrude
We must separate now, for the General will soon be back.

Vernon (aside)
I shall still look after you!  I have now a weapon that I can use and—­

(Exit Vernon.)

Scenefifteenth

Gertrude (alone, leaning against the closet in which the cup is locked up) Where can he have hidden that cup?

Curtain to the Third Act.

ActIV

Scenefirst

(Pauline’s chamber.)

Gertrude and Pauline (the latter sleeping on a large armchair on the left).

Gertrude (cautiously entering) She is sleeping, and the doctor said that she would wake up at once.  Her slumber alarms me.  This then is the girl that he is in love with.  I do not find her pretty at all.  Oh, yes, after all, she is beautiful!  But how is it that men do not see that beauty is nothing but a promise, and that love is the—­(someone knocks).  How is this; there are people coming.

Vernon (outside)
May I come in, Pauline?

Gertrude
It is the doctor.

Scenesecond

The same persons and Vernon.

Gertrude
You told me that she would soon awake.

Vernon
Don’t be alarmed. (Calling aloud) Pauline!  Pauline!

Pauline (awakening)
O M. Vernon!  Where am I?  Ah!  In my own room.  What has happened to me?

Vernon My child, you fell asleep while you were taking your tea.  Madame de Grandchamp feared as I did that this was the beginning of a sickness; but it is no such thing.  It is altogether, as it seems to me, the consequence of a night without sleep.

Gertrude
And now, Pauline, how do you feel?

Pauline
I have been sleeping—­and madame was here while I slept! (She starts
up; puts her hand upon her bosom.) Ah!  It is outrageous! (To Vernon)
Doctor, can you have been an accomplice?

Gertrude
An accomplice in what?  What were you going to say?

Vernon
I! my child!  Could you suppose that I was the accomplice of an evil
action wrought against you, whom I love as if you were my daughter? 
Don’t speak of such a thing as that!  But come, tell me?

Pauline
There is nothing, doctor, nothing to say!

Gertrude
Let me speak a few words to her.

Vernon (aside)
What possible motive can there be for a young child to keep silence,
when she is the victim of such an act of treachery as this?

Gertrude (in a low voice to Pauline) So you see, Pauline, you didn’t long keep in your possession the proofs which you intended taking to your father in your ridiculous accusation of me!

Pauline
I understand all; you gave me a narcotic in order to deprive me of
them.

Gertrude
We are equally inquisitive.  I have done to you what you did to me in
Ferdinand’s apartments.