LIEUTENANT. I'm off. General: take warning by me: be on your guard
against the better side of your nature. (To the lady.) Madame: my
apologies. I thought you were the same person, only of the opposite
sex; and that naturally misled me.
LADY (sweetly). It was not your fault, was it? I'm so glad you're not
angry with me any longer, lieutenant. (She offers her hand.)
LIEUTENANT (bending gallantly to kiss it). Oh, madam, not the lea--
(Checking himself and looking at it.) You have your brother's hand. And
the same sort of ring.
LADY (sweetly). We are twins.
LIEUTENANT. That accounts for it. (He kisses her hand.) A thousand
pardons. I didn't mind about the despatches at all: that's more the
General's affair than mine: it was the abuse of my confidence through
the better side of my nature. (Taking his cap, gloves, and whip from
the table and going.) You'll excuse my leaving you, General, I hope.
Very sorry, I'm sure. (He talks himself out of the room. Giuseppe
follows him and shuts the door.)
NAPOLEON (looking after them with concentrated irritation). Idiot! (The
Strange Lady smiles sympathetically. He comes frowning down the room
between the table and the fireplace, all his awkwardness gone now that
he is alone with her.)
LADY. How can I thank you, General, for your protection?
NAPOLEON (turning on her suddenly). My despatches: come! (He puts out
his hand for them.)
LADY. General! (She involuntarily puts her hands on her fichu as if to
protect something there.)
NAPOLEON. You tricked that blockhead out of them. You disguised
yourself as a man. I want my despatches. They are there in the bosom of
your dress, under your hands.
LADY (quickly removing her hands). Oh, how unkindly you are speaking to
me! (She takes her handkerchief from her fichu.) You frighten me. (She
touches her eyes as if to wipe away a tear.)
NAPOLEON. I see you don't know me madam, or you would save yourself the
trouble of pretending to cry.
LADY (producing an effect of smiling through her tears). Yes, I do know
you. You are the famous General Buonaparte. (She gives the name a
marked Italian pronunciation Bwaw-na-parr-te.)
NAPOLEON (angrily, with the French pronunciation). Bonaparte, madame,
Bonaparte. The papers, if you please.
LADY. But I assure you-- (He snatches the handkerchief rudely from
her.) General! (Indignantly.)
NAPOLEON (taking the other handkerchief from his breast). You were good
enough to lend one of your handkerchiefs to my lieutenant when you
robbed him. (He looks at the two handkerchiefs.) They match one
another. (He smells them.) The same scent. (He flings them down on the
table.) I am waiting for the despatches. I shall take them, if
necessary, with as little ceremony as the handkerchief. (This
historical incident was used eighty years later, by M. Victorien
Sardou, in his drama entitled "Dora.")
LADY (in dignified reproof). General: do you threaten women?
NAPOLEON (bluntly). Yes.