Lionnette (seriously and haughtily).
You are confounding me with some other woman whom you loved before me. Do I expose myself to these suppositions by my ways of living? Ah! no, no. I have many defects but no vices, I believe; and, in spite of my anxiety for the future, I have never yet dreamed of these ways of escape. I trust never to think for a moment of them.
John.
How much I love you! You have in you all that is most strange and noble in this world. You have a power over me almost superhuman. I think of no one but you; I want nothing but you; I dream only of you. If I suspect, it is because I love you. When you are not here, I do not exist: when I find you again, I tremble like a child. I implore you never to trifle with that love,—so deep, and, yet, so troubled. I do not ask you to love me beyond your power of loving; but love none other more than me. You know not—I do not know myself—what the result might be. When I think of the future, I grow giddy. (In a low, eager voice) I adore you! I adore you!
(During the last words Nourvady has come on to the stage again. He has looked at John and Lionnette. He takes his hat; Godler and Trévelé follow him.)
Lionnette.
Do not speak so low; you could be heard.
John.
Kiss me, then.
Lionnette.