"All that they can say of a woman who has something to conceal."
"What does it matter to me?"
"For Julien's sake you ought to be most careful of your reputation, which we have succeeded thus far in preserving intact."
"Julien knows perfectly well that I have nothing with which to reproach myself."
"It is because he knows it that he will fly at the throat of the first man who presumes to say a word against you."
"Let us go, then," said Julie, ringing for Camille. "I will do whatever you choose, my friend, provided that I need never see Monsieur Antoine again!"
"Do not say that, madame; I have a single remaining hope."
"Ah! you still have hope, have you?" said Julie with her heartrending smile.
"I should lie if I said that it was very well founded," replied Marcel, sadly; "but I cannot abandon it until the last extremity. Do not deprive me of the means of breaking down Monsieur Antoine's obstinacy."
"What is the use?" queried Julie. "Didn't you tell me that the marriage of a titled woman to a plebeian meant unhappiness, persecution and a horrible struggle for the plebeian?"