The Essential Guy de Maupassant Collection. Guy de Maupassant
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M. DE SALLUS
No, about a dozen. You know she is rather particular.
JACQUES DE RANDOL.
It is pleasant to be intimate with her, is it not?
M. DE SALLUS
Exquisite! And then, you know, she is a woman in a million. I do not know whether you agree with me, but I find there are so few women that are really women.
JACQUES DE RANDOL [_laughs_]
I have found that out.
M. DE SALLUS
Yes, and you have found out that there are women who have a feminine air, but who are not women.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Explain yourself.
M. DE SALLUS
Good gracious! Our society women, with very rare exceptions, are simply pictures; they are pretty; they are distinguished; but they charm you only in their drawing-rooms. The part they play consists entirely in making men admire their dress, their dainty ways, all of which are assumed.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Men love them, nevertheless.
M. DE SALLUS
Oh, very rarely, my dear fellow.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Pardon me!
M. DE SALLUS
Oh, yes, dreamers do. But men--real men--men who are passionate, men who are positive, men who are tender, do not love the society woman of to-day, since she is incapable of love. My dear fellow, look around you. You see intrigues--everyone sees them; but can you lay your finger upon a single real love affair--a love that is disinterested, such a love as there used to be--inspired by a single woman of our acquaintance? Don't I speak the truth? It flatters a man to have a mistress--it flatters him, it amuses him, and then it tires him. But turn to the other picture and look at the woman of the stage. There is not one who has not at least five or six love affairs on the carpet; idiotic follies, causing bankruptcy, scandal, and suicides. Men love them; yes, they love these women because these women know how to inspire love, and because they are loving women. Yes, indeed, _they_ know how to conquer men; they understand the seduction of a smile; they know how to attract, seize, and wrap us up in their hearts, how to enslave us with a look, and they need not be beautiful at that. They have a conquering power that we never find in our wives.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
And the Santelli is a seductress of this kind?
M. DE SALLUS
She is first among the first! Ah, the cunning little coquette! _She_ knows how to make men run after her.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Does she do only that?
M. DE SALLUS
A woman of that sort does not give herself the trouble of making men run after her unless she has some further object in view.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
The devil! You make me believe you attend two first nights in the same evening.
M. DE SALLUS
My dear boy, don't imagine such a thing.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Great heavens! you have such a satisfied and triumphant air--an air so desirous of calm at home. If I am deceived I am sorry--for your sake.
M. DE SALLUS
Well, we will assume that you are deceived and--
SCENE IV.
(_The same, and_ Mme. de Sallus.)
M. DE SALLUS [_gaily_]
Well, my dear, Jacques remains. He has consented for my sake.
MME. DE SALLUS
I congratulate you. And how did you achieve that miracle?
M. DE SALLUS
Oh, easily enough, in the course of conversation.
MME. DE SALLUS
And of what have you been talking?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Of the happiness that comes to a man who remains quietly at home.
MME. DE SALLUS
That sort of happiness has but little attraction for me. I like the excitement of travel.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
There is a time for everything; and travel is very often inopportune and very inconvenient.
MME. DE SALLUS
But how about that important appointment of yours at nine o'clock? Have you given it up altogether, Monsieur de Randol?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I have, Madame.
MME. DE SALLUS
You are very changeable.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
No, no, I am simply adapting myself to circumstances.
M. DE SALLUS
Will you pardon me if I write a note? [_Sits at desk at the other end of the drawing-room._]
MME. DE SALLUS [_to_ Jacques de Randol]
What has happened?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Oh, nothing; everything is all right.
MME, DE SALLUS
When do we go?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Not at all.
MME. DE SALLUS
Are you mad? Why?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Please don't ask me now about it.
MME. DE SALLUS
I am sure that he is laying a trap for us.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Not at all. He is very quiet, very contented, and has absolutely no suspicion.
MME. DE SALLUS
Then what does it all mean?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Now, be calm. He is happy, I tell you.
MME. DE SALLUS
That is not true.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
I tell you it is. He has made me the confidant of all his happiness.
MME. DE SALLUS
It is just a trick; he wishes to watch us.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Oh, no; he is confiding and conciliatory. The only fear he has is of you.
MME. DE SALLUS
Of me?
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Yes; in the same way that you are, all the time, afraid of him.
MME. DE SALLUS
Great heavens! You have lost your head. You are talking at random.
JACQUES DE RANDOL
Listen--I