MAIRAUT [mumbling confusedly] I was saying—nothing—I was saying—No, I wasn’t saying anything.
MME. MAIRAUT [to Madame Dupont] Then there has been some unfortunate affair in your family?
DUPONT. Yes. By my first marriage I had two daughters. One, that great fool of a Caroline whom you know.
MME. MAIRAUT. Quite well. She remains unmarried, does she not?
DUPONT. She prefers it. That’s the only reason. The other was called Angèle. When she was seventeen she was guilty of an indiscretion which it became impossible to hide. I turned her out of my house. [Quite sincerely] I was deeply distressed at having to do it.
MME. DUPONT. For three days he refused to eat anything.
DUPONT. Yes, I was terribly distressed. But I knew my duty as a man of honor, and I did it.
MME. MAIRAUT. It was noble of you! [She shakes him warmly by the hand].
MAIRAUT. Since you were so fond of her, perhaps it would have been better to keep her with you.
MME. MAIRAUT. My dear, you are speaking without thinking. [To Dupont] And what has become of her?