he matter? Can he have found out?
[She looks toward the table.] The bill? [She runs to the table.]

PERCINET. What are you looking for?

SYLVETTE. Nothing.--Now let me hear your poem.

PERCINET. No.

SYLVETTE. Please!

PERCINET. No.

SYLVETTE. But I want to hear it.

PERCINET. The verses are not good.

SYLVETTE. Oh! [Aside] I think he knows!

PERCINET. [Aside] I think she knows!

BOTH. [Each to the other] _You_ know!? [After a pause, they
laugh.] Ha, ha, ha!

PERCINET. Isn't it funny?

SYLVETTE. Very.

PERCINET. We were made to play a farce--our fathers were the best
of friends all the time!

SYLVETTE. Good neighbors.

PERCINET. I'll warrant they are cousins, too!

SYLVETTE. [Bowing] I am about to marry my cousin!

PERCINET. My cousin!

SYLVETTE. How nice and respectable!

PERCINET. Classic!

SYLVETTE. Of course, I had dreamed of a marriage more--but it is
comforting to know that our love coincides with our--duty!

PERCINET. And the material interests of our fathers.

SYLVETTE. An excellent marriage, in short: a marriage of
convenience! And our poor idyl!

PERCINET. Gone.

SYLVETTE. Gone! So I'm the good little girl of the family!

PERCINET. And I the obedient little son! But it was only as Romeo
that I appealed to you!

SYLVETTE. Well, you are no longer that!

PERCINET. And do you think you are Juliet?

SYLVETTE. Now you're bitter.

PERCINET. And you cynical.

SYLVETTE. If you were ridiculous, is it my fault?

PERCINET. I at least had a partner!

SYLVETTE. I, too! Poor Blue Bird, you are beautifully plucked!

PERCINET. [Bitterly] A pre-arranged abduction!

SYLVETTE. Farce, all of it!

PERCINET. And I your savior! All our poetry was bought and paid
for. Our beautiful bubble is now a tiny fleck of soap. Farewell,
Shakespearean lovers--we have nothing in common with you!

SYLVETTE. Nothing!

PERCINET. In place of a divine drama, we played an infamous parody.

SYLVETTE. Our nightingale was a sparrow!

PERCINET. And the immortal wall a punch-and-judy theater. We were
the puppets, worked by our fathers.

SYLVETTE. But how much more ridiculous we should be if we loved
each other less than we do!

PERCINET. We must now love more than ever.

SYLVETTE. But we do--we adore--

PERCINET. The word is not a bit too strong.

SYLVETTE. Love can console us. Can it not, my treasure?

PERCINET. Certainly, my jewe