gose
Senora! Yes, love is madness! I have surrendered to you more than
myself! Alas, I wish I had the world to offer you. You evidently are
not aware that your picture gallery alone cost me almost all my
fortune.

Faustine
Paquita!

Fregose
And that I would surrender to you even my honor.

SCENE NINTH

The same persons and Paquita.

Faustine (to Paquita)
Tell my steward that the pictures of my gallery must immediately be
carried to the house of Don Fregose.

Fregose
Paquita, do not deliver that order.

Faustine
The other day, they tell me, the Queen Catherine de Medici sent an
order to Diana of Poitiers to deliver up what jewels she had received
from Henry II.; Diana sent them back melted into an ingot. Paquita,
fetch the jeweler.

Fregose
You will do nothing of the kind, but leave the room.

(Exit Paquita.)

SCENE TENTH

The same persons, with the exception of Paquita.

Faustine
As I am not yet the Marchioness of Fregose, how dare you give your
orders in my house?

Fregose
I am quite aware of the fact that here it is my duty to receive them.
But is my whole fortune worth one word from you? Forgive an impulse of
despair.

Faustine
One ought to be a gentleman, even in despair; and in your despair you
treat Faustine as a courtesan. Ah! you wish to be adored, but the
vilest Venetian woman would tell you that this costs dear.

Fregose
I have deserved this terrible outburst.

Faustine
You say you love me. Love me? Love is self-devotion without the hope
of recompense. Love is the wish to live in the light of a sun which
the lover trembles to approach. Do not deck out your egotism in the
lustre of genuine love. A married woman, Laura de Nova, said to
Petrarch, "You are mine, without hope--live on without love." But when
Italy crowned the poet she crowned also his sublime love, and
centuries to come shall echo with admiration to the names of Laura and
Petrarch.

Fregose
There are very many poets whom I dislike, but the man you mention is
the object of my abomination. To the end of the world women will throw
him in the face of those lovers whom they wish to keep without taking.

Faustine
You are called general, but you are nothing but a soldier.

Fregose
Indeed, and how then shall I imitate this cursed Petrarch?

Faustine
If you say you love me, you will ward off from a man of genius--(Don
Fregose starts)--yes, there are su