(Pauline sinks back overwhelmed with emotion in an armchair.)
Vernon
Poor child! I fear she is going to faint. (He rings and calls)
Marguerite! Marguerite!
SCENE FOURTEENTH
The same persons, Gertrude, Marguerite and the General.
Marguerite (running in)
What is it, sir?
Vernon
Get me a tea-urn of boiling water, into which you must drop some
orange leaves.
(Exit Marguerite.)
Gertrude
What is the matter with you, Pauline?
The General
Dear child, do tell us?
Gertrude
Oh, it is nothing! We can understand her feelings. It is because she
sees her lot in life decided--
Vernon (to the General)
Her lot decided? And in what way?
The General
She is going to marry Godard! (Aside) It seems to me as if she were
giving up some love affair of which she did not wish to tell me. As
far as I can understand from what my wife has told me, the unknown one
is ineligible, and Pauline did not discover his unworthiness until
yesterday.
Vernon
And you believe this? Do not precipitate matters, General. We will
talk it over this evening. (Aside) Before then I am going to have a
few words with Madame de Grandchamp.
Pauline (to Gertrude)
The doctor knows all!
Gertrude
Ah!
Pauline (she puts back into the pocket of Gertrude the handkerchief
and the key, while the latter is looking at Vernon, who converses with
the General)
Keep him away, for he is capable of telling all he knows to the
General.
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