pleasant voyage? Nothing. A duel perhaps on return! In this illogical world we live in your reputation will be far from damaged; a world which dislikes adultery in a woman and is passionately fond of all the gallant sins of a fashionable man. Whereas I?!! And yet it's only quite natural and especially on the brink of a final resolution, I hesitate and jump back. Must you be angry about it? Look, are you angry? can you be? ought you to be?

PELTIER (as if unexpectedly released and decided, peremptory, brief, confident) Questions! Questions! In my turn I will say to you: Let's be serious. Admit it: You encouraged me to do this thing. And exactly as you say it was quite natural for me to undertake it, and still is; I concur in your reasoning, and will pursue it like a fashionable man or otherwise!

(Marie recoils abruptly. Peltier takes a step forward.)

PELTIER
And I am going to prove it to you!

MARIE (rigid and henceforth not giving an inch)
Fie!

PELTIER
You are going to see.

(Aubin abruptly opens the door and appears.)

AUBIN (addressing himself exclusively to Peltier) Yes, it's I, the one you didn't expect. No need to tell you how I caught wind of your plot and was able to overtake you so soon. The essential thing is that four officers from the garrison are indeed willing to serve as seconds and are awaiting us in a nearby woods with swords and pistols as you please even though I have indeed the right to choose the weapons.

PELTIER
I'll come with you.

AUBIN (to his wife, aloud, taking her hand which he kisses) You, Marie, await me here—dead or alive. Do you understand me, my pretty?

(Aubin and Peltier leave)

MARIE What an affair! Am I really dreaming in the end. (throwing herself on a sofa which might soon have become dangerous) A little order in my thoughts. (pressing her fingers to her forehead) There. There.—Yes, what I was telling Mr. Peltier is still true. I was a spoiled child when Aubin took me. He spoiled me, too. I became accustomed to prolonging my childhood and my youth in the married state. I was willful, demanding, capricious. At the beginning my husband found this charming, then he tired of it. Quarrels, harshness on his part, on mine sulks. Seven years later Peltier appeared. A charming man, surely. But less so than Aubin, now that I see things clearly. And at bottom, this stupid departure is still more my fault than his. A moment of feminine scorn which with our mores a man is praised for profiting from. I couldn't hold it against him just now for wanting what was implied by our innocent prank and a little fortitude helped me confine it to its character of folly and nothing more. But what? While I tell myself these things, two likable men who both love me, and of which I decidedly prefer one, my husband, are fighting over me. O Mercy! Just as if I were a young girl. And indeed! O punishment! Me! Me! What anguish and what a situation! And the future! During these sweet words with Aubin just now. I've the great misery of waiting for him or the other one. All the same, I've resisted. And there was a moment when I had some merit. But this trip! And this waiting! My God, you in whom one must believe despite all the opinions of folks these days, My God—have pity on me in my misery! (long silence during which she remains prostrated.)

AUBIN (enters, wounded in the shoulder, supported by an Officer)
It's over. Madame Aubin, I present you one of my seconds.

(To the officer)
Sir?

OFFICER (bowing before Marie)
Count de Givors.

AUBIN
Count de Givors, I present you my wife.

MARIE (who, since her husband's entrance has had eyes only for him,
mechanically)
Sir. (leaping after a