follows:_
CLOTILDE. "I have adopted FERNANDE and shall call her MARGUERITE. ANDRE
has deceived me, and I will test his love at once." (_Enter_ ANDRE.)
CLOTILDE. "ANDRE, I think we have made a mistake in fancying ourselves
in love. Would you like to leave me?"
ANDRE. "My dearest friend, I really think I should. You see I have just
fallen in love with an innocent little angel. By Jove! there she is.
Tell me her name."
CLOTILDE. "That is MARGUERITE, a protegé of mine. You shall marry her.
Go and make love to her." (_He goes._)
CLOTILDE. "The base wretch deserts me. I will proceed to become a
tigress. I will marry him to FERNANDE, and then tell him what a base
wretch she is. We'll see how he will like that. He thinks her innocent!
Ha! ha! (_Aside._--On reflection she is innocent according to this
version of the play; but SARDOU told the truth about her, and I will act
on the supposition that she is a wretch.) That will be a fit revenge,
and I can't do better than rave about it for a while." (_Raves
accordingly until the curtain falls._)
COLD-BLOODED CRITIC. "I have never seen a finer piece of acting than
that of Miss MORANT in the last scene. But then her revenge becomes
absurd when you reflect that FERNANDE is just what ANDRE fancies her, an
innocent girl. That is a fair specimen of the way in which American
writers adapt French plays. They sacrifice probability to prudery."
FASHIONABLE LADY. "How sweetly penitent FERNANDE looks in her black
dress. I hope she will be innocent enough to wear white in the next act.
One shouldn't give way to repentance or grief for too long a time. Now
when my husband died I was in the deepest grief for six months, and then
slipped into half mourning so gradually that no one noticed the change."