Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales. Guy de Maupassant
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DE RANDOL
Without relapse?
MME. DE SALLUS
Without relapse.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I will explain the mystery. The fact of the matter is this, your husband has simply become a widower.
MME. DE SALLUS
What do you say?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I mean that your husband is unattached just now, and seeks to spend his leisure time with his wife.
MME. DE SALLUS
But I tell you that he is in love with me.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Yes – yes – and no. He is in love with you – and also with another. Tell me, his temper is usually bad, isn’t it?
MME. DE SALLUS
Execrable!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Well, then, here is a man in love with you who shows his wonderful return of tenderness by moods that are simply unsupportable – for they are unsupportable, aren’t they?
MME. DE SALLUS
Absolutely.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
If he wooed you with tenderness you would not feel fear. You would say to yourself, “My turn has come at last,” and then he would inspire you with a little pity for him, for a woman has always a sneaking sort of compassion for the man who loves her, even though that man be her husband.
MME. DE SALLUS
Perhaps that is true.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Is he nervous, preoccupied?
MME. DE SALLUS
Yes.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
And he is abrupt with you, not to say brutal? He demands his right without even praying for it?
MME. DE SALLUS
True.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
My darling, for the moment you are simply a substitute.
MME. DE SALLUS
Oh! no, no!
JACQUES DE RANDOL
My dearest girl, your husband’s latest mistress was Madame de Bardane, whom he left very abruptly about two months ago to run after the Santelli.
MME. DE SALLUS
What, the singer?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Yes, a capricious, saucy, cunning, venal little woman. A woman not at all uncommon upon the stage, or in the world either, for that matter.
MME. DE SALLUS
Then that is why he haunts the Opéra.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [laughs]
Without a doubt.
MME. DE SALLUS [dreamily]
No, no, you are deceiving yourself.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [emphatically]
The Santelli resists him and repulses him; then, burdened with a heart full of longing that has no outlet, he deigns to offer you a portion.
MME. DE SALLUS
My dear, you are dreaming. If he were in love with the Santelli, he would not tell me that he loves me. If he were so entirely preoccupied with this creature, he would not woo me. If he coveted her, he would not desire me at the same time.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
How little you understand certain kinds of men! Men like your husband, once inoculated with the poison of love, – which in them is nothing but brutal desire, – men like him, I say, when a woman they desire escapes or resists them, become raging beasts. They behave like madmen, like men possessed, with arms outstretched and lips wide open. They must love some one, no matter whom just as a mad dog with open jaws bites anything and everybody. The Santelli has unchained this raging brute, and you find yourself face to face with his dripping jaws. Take care! You call that love! It is nothing but animal passion.
MME. DE SALLUS [sarcastically]
Really, you are very unfair to him. I am afraid jealousy is blinding you.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Oh, no, I am not deceiving myself, you may be sure.
MME. DE SALLUS
Yes, I think you are. Formerly my husband neglected and abandoned me, doubtless finding me very insipid; but now he finds me much improved, and has returned to me. It is very easy to understand, and moreover, it is the worse for him, for he must believe that I have been a faithful wife to him all my life.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Madeline!
MME. DE SALLUS
Well, what?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Does a girl cease to be a faithful wife, if, when deserted by the man who has assumed charge of her existence, and her happiness, and her love, and her ideals, she refuses to resign herself – young, beautiful, and full of hope – to eternal isolation and everlasting solitude?
MME. DE SALLUS
I think I have already told you that there are certain things which it is not necessary to discuss, and this is one of them. [The front door bell sounds twice.] Here is my husband. Please be silent. He is in a gloomy mood just now.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [rises]
I think I shall go. I am not in love with your husband any more, for many reasons, and it is difficult for me to be polite to him when I despise him, and when I know that he ought to despise me, and would despise me when I shake hands with him, did he know all.
MME. DE SALLUS [annoyed]
How many times must I tell you that all this is entirely out of place?
SCENE II
(The same, including M. de Sallus.)
Enter M. de Sallus, evidently in a bad temper. He looks for a moment at Mme. de Sallus and at Jacques de Randol, who is taking his leave; then comes forward.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Ah! Sallus.
M. DE SALLUS
How are you, Randol? Surely you are not going because I came.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
No, but my time is up. I have an appointment at the club at midnight, and now it is half after eleven. [They shake hands.] Have you come from the first performance of “Mahomet”?
M. DE SALLUS
Oh! Of course.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
People say that it should be a great success.
M. DE SALLUS
It doubtless will be.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [shakes hands again with De SALLUS and Madame de Sallus]
Well, till I see you again.
M. DE SALLUS
Till then, my dear fellow.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Madame, adieu.
MME. DE SALLUS
Adieu, Monsieur de Randol. [Exit Randol.]
SCENE III
(M. de Sallus and Mme. de Sallus.)
M. DE SALLUS [sinks into an armchair]
Was Randol here any length of time?
MME. DE