Thérèse [almost desperate] Don't dare to say that again. If you were an honorable man, you couldn't possibly have said these things to me to-day when my living depends upon you. You know the position I'm in, and you know that if I don't stay here, there are only two courses open to me—to go and live at the expense of my godmother, which I will not do, or to take the chances of a woman alone looking for work in Paris. Don't you understand that speaking about your love for me to-day is the same as driving me into the street?
Nérisse. If you go into the street, it is by your own choice.
Thérèse. Exactly. There's the old, everlasting, scandalous bargain. Sell yourself or you shall starve. If I give in, I can stay; if I don't—
Nérisse. I didn't say so. But clearly my efforts to help you will be greater if I know that I'm working for my friend.
Thérèse. You actually confess it! You think yourself an honorable man, and you don't see that what you're doing is the vilest of crimes.
Nérisse. Now I ask you. Did I wait for your answer before I began to defend you and to help you?
Thérèse. No, but you believe I shall give in through gratitude or fear. Well, don't count upon it. Even if I have to kill myself in the end, I shall never sell myself, either to you or to anyone else. [In despair] Then that's what it comes to. Wherever we want to make our way, to have the right to work and to live, we find the door barred by a man who says, Give yourself or starve. Because one's on one's own, because they know that there's not another man to start up and defend his property! It's almost impossible to believe human beings can be so vile to one another. For food! Just for food! Because they know we shall starve if we don't give in. Because we have old people, or children at home who are waiting for us to bring them food, men put this vile condition to us, to do like the girls in the streets. It's shameful, shameful, shameful. It's enough to make one shriek out loud with rage and despair.
Nérisse [speaking sternly] I've never asked you to sell yourself. I ask you to love me.
Thérèse. I shall never love you.
Nérisse [as before] You'll never love. Neither me nor others. Listen—