Ferdinand
It is only in romance that people die of love. In real life they seek
consolation.
Gertrude
Do not you men die for your outraged honor, for a word, for a gesture?
Well, there are women who die for their love, that is, when their love
is a treasure which has become their all, which is their very life!
And I am one of those women. Since you have been under this roof,
Ferdinand, I have feared a catastrophe every moment. Yes. And I always
carry about me something which will enable me to quit this life, the
very moment that misfortune falls on us. See! (She shows him a phial.)
Now you know that life that I have lived!
Ferdinand
Ah! you weep!
Gertrude
I swore that I would keep back these tears, but they are strangling
me! For you--While you speak to me with that cold politeness which
is your last insult,--your last insult to a love which you
repudiate!--you show not the least sympathy towards me! You would like
to see me dead, for then you would be unhampered by me. But, Ferdinand,
you do not know me! I am willing to confess everything to the General,
whom I would not deceive. This lying fills me with disgust! I shall take
my child, I shall come to your house, we will flee together. But no more
of Pauline!
Ferdinand
If you did this, I would kill myself.
Gertrude
And I, too, would kill myself! Then we should be united in death, and
you would never be hers!
Ferdinand (aside)
What an infernal creature!
Gertrude
And there is this consideration.
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