I
understand this, and it is quite natural. Had I been in your place I
should doubtless have experienced the same feelings. But, my dear, you
know not the ways either of the world or of society. And if, like so
many other women, you have been deceiving yourself--for we women, ah,
how often are we thus deceived!--you still can make another choice.
But for me the deed has been done, I have no other choice to make.
Ferdinand is all I have, for I have passed my thirtieth year, and I
have sacrificed to him what I should have kept unsullied--the honor of
an aged man. The field is clear for you, you may yet love some other
man more ardently than you can love to-day--this is my experience.
Pauline, child, give him up, and you will learn what a devoted slave
you will have in me! You will have more than a mother, more than a
friend, you will have the unstinted help of a soul that is lost! Oh!
listen to me! (She kneels, and raises her hands to Pauline's corsage.)
Behold me at your feet, acknowledging you my rival! Is this sufficient
humiliation for me? Oh, if you only knew what this costs a woman to
undergo! Relent! Relent, and save me. (A loud knocking is heard, she
takes advantage of Pauline's confusion to feel for the letters.) Give
back my life to me! (Aside) She has them!
Pauline
Oh, leave me, madame! Will you force me to call for some one?
(Pauline pushes Gertrude away, and proceeds to open the door.
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