Pauline
Let me hear no more of that creature.  She deceives my father.

Vernon
I know it.

Pauline
She never loved him.

Vernon
I was quite sure of that!

Pauline
She has sworn to ruin me.

Vernon
How?  Is it in an affair of your heart that she wishes to do you harm?

Pauline
Rather say, it is my life she threatens.

Vernon
What a horrible suspicion!  Pauline, my child, I love you well, you
know I do.  Tell me, can nothing save you?

Pauline
In order to change my fate, it would be necessary that my father
change his ideas.  Listen; I am in love with M. Ferdinand.

Vernon
I already know that.  But who would hinder you from marrying him?

Pauline
Can you keep a secret?  Well, he is the son of General Marcandal!

Vernon My God!  You may rely on my keeping that secret!  Why, your father would fight with him to the death, if for nothing else, because he has had him under his roof for three years.

Pauline
You will then see very plainly that there is no hope for me.

(Pauline sinks back overwhelmed with emotion in an armchair.)

Vernon
Poor child!  I fear she is going to faint. (He rings and calls)
Marguerite!  Marguerite!

SceneFourteenth

The same persons, Gertrude, Marguerite and the General.

Marguerite (running in)
What is it, sir?

Vernon
Get me a tea-urn of boiling water, into which you must drop some
orange leaves.

(Exit Marguerite.)

Gertrude
What is the matter with you, Pauline?

The General
Dear child, do tell us?

Gertrude
Oh, it is nothing!  We can understand her feelings.  It is because she
sees her lot in life decided—­

Vernon (to the General)
Her lot decided?  And in what way?

The General She is going to marry Godard! (Aside) It seems to me as if she were giving up some love affair of which she did not wish to tell me.  As far as I can understand from what my wife has told me, the unknown one is ineligible, and Pauline did not discover his unworthiness until yesterday.

Vernon And you believe this?  Do not precipitate matters, General.  We will talk it over this evening. (Aside) Before then I am going to have a few words with Madame de Grandchamp.

Pauline (to Gertrude)
The doctor knows all!

Gertrude
Ah!

Pauline (she puts back into the pocket of Gertrude the handkerchief and the key, while the latter is looking at Vernon, who converses with the General) Keep him away, for he is capable of telling all he knows to the General.  We must at least protect Ferdinand.

Gertrude (aside) She is right. (Aloud) Doctor, I have just been informed that Francis, one of our best workmen, is sick; he hasn’t appeared this morning, and you might go and visit him.