Paul. The suffering is by no means unpleasant, Duchess.
Duchess. You’re going to sit next to me at the table. We’ll slander the Government!
Paul. Oh, Duchess! And I one of her servants! Oh, no!—But there is nothing to prevent my listening to you!
Curtain.
ACT II
(Same scene as Act I.)
(Bellac, Toulonnier, Roger, Paul Raymond, Madame de Céran, Madame de Loudan, the Duchess, Suzanne, Lucy, Jeanne, seated in a semi-circle, listening to Saint-Réault, who is finishing his lecture.)
Saint-Réault. And make no mistake about it! Profound as these legends may appear because of their baffling exoticism, they are merely—my illustrious father wrote in 1834—elemental, primitive imaginings, in comparison with the transcendental conceptions of Brahmin lore gathered together in the Upanishads, or indeed in the eighteen Paranas of Vyasa, the compiler of the Veda.
Jeanne. (Aside to Paul) Are you asleep?