t. That means more than any
human oath. God is now watching over us, and one ought to forget
everything which has happened before. Leocadie, a new age is dawning.
Everything becomes holy now, Leocadie. Our kisses, however wild they
may be, are holy from henceforth. Leocadie, my love, my wife! (He
contemplates her with an ardent glance.) Isn't her expression quite
different. Prosper, from what you ever knew her to have before? Is not
her forehead pure! What has been is blotted out--not so, Leocadie?

LEOCADIE. Surely, Henri.

HENRI. And all is well. We leave Paris tomorrow. Leocadie makes her
last appearance tonight at the Porte St. Martin, and I am placing here
tonight for the last time.

HOST. Are you mad, Henri? Do you want to desert me? Besides, the
manager of the Porte St. Martin will never think of letting Leocadie go
away. Why, she makes the fortune of his house. The young gentlemen
stream thither, so they say.

HENRI. Hold your peace. Leocadie will go with me. She will never
desert me. Tell me that you will never desert me, Leocadie. (Brutally.)
Tell me.

LEOCADIE. I will never desert you.

HENRI. If you did, I would ... (pause). I am sick of this life. I want
quiet--I wish to have quiet.

HOST. But what do you want to do then, Henri? It is quite ridiculous. I
will make you a proposition. So far as I am concerned, take Leocadie
from the Porte St. Martin, but let her stay here with me. I will engage
her. Anyway, I have rather a dearth of talented women characters.

HENRI. My mind is made up. Prosper. We are leaving town. We are going
into the country.

HOST. Into the country? But where?

HENRI. To my old father, who lives alone in our poor village--I haven't
seen him for seven years. He has almost given up hope of ever seeing
his lost son again. He will welcome me with joy.

PROSPER. What will you do in the country? In the country they all
starve. People are a thousand times worse off there than in town. What
on earth will you do there? You are not the man to till the fields.
Don't imagine you are.

HENRI. Time will prove that I am the man to do even that.

HOST. Soon there won't be any corn growing in any part of France. You
are going to certain misery.

HENRI. To happiness. Prosper. Not so, Leocadie? We have often dreamt of
it. I yearn for the peace of the wide plains. Yes, Prosper, I have seen
myself in my dreams going over the fields with her, in an infinite
stillness with the wonderful plac