)
The General (coming in from the garden)
I can find the vase of flowers nowhere. There is some mystery in all
these things. Gertrude?--There is no one here! Ah! Madame de
Grandchamp, you will have to tell me!--It is a nice thing that I
should be deceived by both wife and daughter!
Curtain to the Second Act.
ACT III
SCENE FIRST
(Same stage-setting. Morning.)
Gertrude; then Champagne.
Gertrude (brings a flower vase from the garden and puts it down on the
table)
What trouble I had to allay his suspicions! One or two more scenes
like that and I shall lose control of him. But I have gained a moment
of liberty now--provided Pauline does not come to trouble me! She must
be asleep--she went to bed so late!--would it be possible to lock her
in her room? (She goes to the door of Pauline's chamber, but cannot
find the key.) I am afraid not.
Champagne (coming in)
M. Ferdinand is coming, madame.
Gertrude
Thank you, Champagne. He went to bed very late, did he not?
Champagne
M. Ferdinand makes his rounds, as you know, every night, and he came
in at half-past one o'clock. I sleep over him, and I heard him.
Gertrude
Does he ever go to bed later than that?
Champagne
Sometimes he does, but that is according to the time he makes his
rounds.
Gertrude
Very good. Thank you, Champagne. (Exit Champagne.) As the reward for a
sacrifice which has lasted for twelve years, and whose agonies can
only be understood by women,--for what man can guess at such
tortures!--what have I asked? Very little! Merely to know that he is
here, near to me, without any satisfaction saving, from time to time,
a furtive glance at him.
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