Henriette.  Fault or no fault:  what does it matter, and what does it mean?—­Adolphe has been at fault in not bringing us together before.  He is guilty of having stolen from us two weeks of bliss, to which he had no right himself.  I am jealous of him on your behalf.  I hate him because he has cheated you out of your mistress.  I should like to blot him from the host of the living, and his memory with him—­wipe him out of the past even, make him unmade, unborn!

Maurice.  Well, we’ll bury him beneath our own memories.  We’ll cover him with leaves and branches far out in the wild woods, and then we’ll pile stone on top of the mound so that he will never look up again. [Raising his glass] Our fate is sealed.  Woe unto us!  What will come next?

Henriette.  Next comes the new era—­What have you in that package?

Maurice.  I cannot remember.

Henriette. [Opens the package and takes out a tie and a pair of gloves] That tie is a fright!  It must have cost at least fifty centimes.

Maurice. [Snatching the things away from her] Don’t you touch them!

Henriette.  They are from her?

Maurice.  Yes, they are.

Henriette.  Give them to me.

Maurice.  No, she’s better than we, better than everybody else.

Henriette.  I don’t believe it.  She is simply stupider and stingier.  One who weeps because you order champagne—­

Maurice.  When the child was without stockings.  Yes, she is a good woman.

Henriette.  Philistine!  You’ll never be an artist.  But I am an artist, and I’ll make a bust of you with a shopkeeper’s cap instead of the laurel wreath—­Her name is Jeanne?

Maurice.  How do you know?

Henriette.  Why, that’s the name of all housekeepers.

Maurice.  Henriette!

(Henriette takes the tie and the gloves and throws them into the fireplace.)

Maurice. [Weakly] Astarte, now you demand the sacrifice of women.  You shall have them, but if you ask for innocent children, too, then I’ll send you packing.

Henriette.  Can you tell me what it is that binds you to me?

Maurice.  If I only knew, I should be able to tear myself away.  But I believe it must be those qualities which you have and I lack.  I believe that the evil within you draws me with the irresistible lure of novelty.

Henriette.  Have you ever committed a crime?

Maurice.  No real one.  Have you?

Henriette.  Yes.

Maurice.  Well, how did you find it?

Henriette.  It was greater than to perform a good deed, for by that we are placed on equality with others; it was greater than to perform some act of heroism, for by that we are raised above others and rewarded.  That crime placed me outside and beyond life, society, and my fellow-beings.  Since then I am living only a partial life, a sort of dream life, and that’s why reality never gets a hold on me.