dden entreaty she said:

"Robert, I love you. Do not leave me. If you were to leave me I know for
certain I could never take another lover. And what would become of me?
You know that I can't do without love."

He replied brusquely, in a harsh voice, that he loved her only too well,
that he thought of nothing but of her.

"I'm going crazy with it."

His harshness delighted and reassured her better than the nerveless
tenderness of oaths and promises could have done. She smiled and began
to undress herself generously.

"When do you make your debut at the Comedie?"

"This very month."

She opened her little bag, and took from it, together with her
face-powder, her call for the rehearsal, which she held out to Robert.
It was a source of unending delight to her to gaze admiringly at this
document, because it bore the heading of the Comedie, with the remote
and awe-inspiring date of its foundation.

"You see, I make my debut as Agnes in _L'Ecole des Femmes_."

"It's a fine part."

"I believe you."

And, while she was undressing, the lines surged to her lips, and she
whispered them:

"Moi, j'ai blesse quelqu'un? fis-je tout etonnee
Oui, dit-elle, blesse; mais blesse tout de bon;
Et c'est l'homme qu'hier vous vites au balcon
Las! qui pourrait, lui dis-je, en avoir ete cause?
Sur lui, sans y penser, fis-je choir quelque chose?"

"You see, I have not grown thin."

"Non, dit-elle, vos yeux ont fait ce coup fatal,
Et c'est de leurs regards qu'est venu tout son mal."

"If anything, I am a little plumper, but not too much."

"He, mon Dieu! ma surprise est, fis-je, sans seconde;
Mes yeux ont-ils du mal pour en donner au monde?"

He listened to the lines with pleasure. If on the one hand he did not
know much more of the literature of bygone days or of French tradition
than his youthful contemporaries, he had more taste and more lively
interests. And, like all Frenchmen, he loved Moliere, understood him,
and felt him profoundly.

"It's delightful," he said. "Now, come to me."

She let her chemise slip downwards with a calm and beneficent grace.
But, because she wished to make herself desired, and because she loved
comedy, she began Agnes' narrative:

"J'etais sur le balcon a travailler au frais,
Lorsque je vis passer sous les arbres d'aupres
Un jeune homme bien fait qui, rencontrant ma vue...."

He called her, and drew her to him. She glided from his arms, and,
advancing toward