Mademoiselle Grégoire. And all that to please men.
Madame Chanteuil. To please a man more than some other woman, and so to be fed, lodged, and kept by him.
Mademoiselle Grégoire [between her teeth] Kept is the right word.
Mademoiselle de Meuriot. Ah, here's Mademoiselle Baron. [To Mademoiselle Baron] Well? What luck?
Mademoiselle Baron [miserably] There's no one in the office. I've got the signed contract for the advertisements of the Institut de Jouvence. Now I must go on to the printers. Here it is. Good-bye. [A silence]
Mademoiselle de Meuriot [in a suffocated voice] Good-bye, my dear.
They watch her go sadly. A long silence.
Thérèse [speaking with great emotion] Poor, poor little thing!
Mademoiselle de Meuriot [also quite overcome, slowly] Perhaps she has someone at home who's hungry.
They each respond by a sigh or an ouf! Mademoiselle Grégoire, Madame Chanteuil, and Mademoiselle de Meuriot rise, picking up their papers.