[_She closes the little window and says gayly_]
Good-evening, Monsieur Feliat.

RENE. Now then, come along. You go on in one minute.

THERESE [_to Feliat_] I'll come back soon.

_She goes out._

RENE [_to Madame Gueret_] Now, Madame, _you_, Quick, Madame!

MADAME GUERET. Yes, yes. All right.

_She plays a flourish of trumpets on the piano._

RENE. Splendid!

MADAME GUERET. Ouf! It's over. At last we can have peace! If she's such
a fool as to refuse both these men--

GUERET [_interrupting_] She won't refuse, you may be sure.

MADAME GUERET [_continuing_]--we shall have to keep her with us. But I
shall insist upon certain conditions.

GUERET. What conditions?

MADAME GUERET. I won't have any scandals at Evreux.

GUERET. There won't be any scandals.

MADAME GUERET. No; because she'll have to behave very differently, I can
tell you. She'll have to leave all these fine airs of independence
behind her in Paris.

GUERET. What airs?

MADAME GUERET. Well, for instance, getting letters and answering them
without any sort of supervision! [_To her brother_] She manages in such
a way that I don't even see the envelopes! [_To her husband_] I object
very much, too, to her student ways.

GUERET. She goes to classes and lectures with her girl friends.

MADAME GUERET. Well, she won't go to any more. And she will have to give
up going out alone.

GUERET. She's of age.

MADAME GUERET. A properly brought up young lady is never of age.

FELIAT. Perfectly true.

MADAME GUERET. And there must be a change in her way of dressing.

GUERET. There will. She'll have to dress simply, for she won't have a
rap.

MADAME GUERET. That has nothing to do with it. I shall make her
understand that she will have to behave like the other girls in good
society.

FELIAT. Of course.

MADAME GUERET. I shall also put a veto on certain books she reads. [_To
her brother_] It's really dreadful, Etienne. You've no idea! One day I
found a shocking book upon her table--a horror! What do you suppose she
said when I remonstrated? That that disgraceful book was necessary in
preparing for her examination. And the worst of it is, it was true. She
showed me the syllabus.

FELIAT. I'm afraid they're bringing up our girls in a way that'll make
unhappy women of them.

MADAME GUERET. Don't let's talk about it; you'll start on politics, and
then you and Henri will begin to argue. All the same I mean to be very
good to her. As soon as