“By your leave, not Pascal, but Gerard—Gabrielle.”

“I wonder what we ought to be doing when they come. I fear my heart is beating rather wildly.”

“Fitting its beats to the occasion, that’s all. As to what we should do, can’t you find a suggestion out of your experience?”

“Cannot you?”

“I think we ought to be making love—Gabrielle. That’s what Gerard would be doing, I expect.”

“We’re doing one thing that’s right, at any rate. We’re talking nonsense—Gerard.”

“Well, I think we ought to play our parts thoroughly.”

“Do you treat everything as a jest?”

“Not when I’m Gerard to your Gabrielle. It’s a part I could play in real earnest.”

“I think Gerard is an extremely ridiculous person.”