"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 début at the Comédie?"
"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 Comédie, with the remote and awe-inspiring date of its foundation.
"You see, I make my début as Agnès in L'École des Femmes."
"It's a fine part."