, you scum.

FRANCOIS. The time'll soon come, Prosper.

SEVERINE (to ROLLIN). What is the matter with both those pretty
girls? Why don't they come nearer? Now that we once are here, I want to
join in everything. I really think that everything is extremely moral
here.

MARQUIS. Have patience, Severine.

SEVERINE. I think nowadays one diverts oneself best in the streets. Do
you know what happened to us yesterday when we went for a drive in the
Promenade de Longchamps?

MARQUIS. Please, please, my dear Severine, why--

SEVERINE. A fellow jumped onto the footboard of our carriage and
shouted, "Next year you will stand behind your coachman and we shall be
sitting in the carriages."

FRANCOIS. Hm! That is rather strong.

MARQUIS. Odds life! I don't think one ought to talk of such things.
Paris is now somewhat feverish, but that will soon pass off again.

GUILLAUME (suddenly). I see flames--flames everywhere I look--red,
high flames.

HOST (to him). You're playing a madman, not a criminal.

SEVERINE. Does he see flames?

FRANCOIS. But all this is still not the real thing. Marquise.

ALBIN (to ROLLIN). I cannot tell you how bewildered I feel already
with everything.

MICHETTE (comes to the MARQUIS). I have not yet greeted you, darling,
you dear old pig.

MARQUIS (embarrassed). She jests, dear Severine.

SEVERINE. It does not look that way. Tell me, little one, how many
love-affairs have you had so far?

MARQUIS (to FRANCOIS). It is really wonderful how well my wife the
Marquise knows how to adapt herself to every situation.

ROLLIN. Yes, it is wonderful.

MICHETTE. Have you counted yours?

SEVERINE. When I was still as young as you ... of course ...

ALBIN (to ROLLIN). Tell me, M. Rollin, is the Marquise joking, or is
she really like--? I positively can't make it out.

ROLLIN. Reality ... playing ... do you know the difference so exactly.
Chevalier?

ALBIN. At any rate ...

ROLLIN. I don't. And what I find so peculiar here is that all apparent
distinctions, so to speak, are taken away. Reality passes into play--
play into reality. Just look now at the Marquise. How she gossips with
those creatures as though she were one of them. At the same time she
is--

ALBIN. Something quite different.

ROLLIN. I thank you, Chevalier.

HOST (to GRAIN). Well, how did it all happen?

GRAIN. What?

HOST. Why, the affair with your aunt, for which you went to prison for
two years.

GRAIN. I told you, I s