LÉON
Well, these things are frightful—these entanglements—I can't help using the word. It was my duty as a friend—and I wish to impress it upon you—to rescue Jean; and as a brother, it was my duty to marry my sister to such a man as he. The future will tell you whether I was right or not. [Coaxingly.] And then, my dear Aunt, when later you have a little nephew or a little niece to take care of, to dandle in your arms, you will banish all these little spaniels that you are taking care of at Neuilly.
MME. DE RONCHARD
The poor little darlings! I, abandon them! Don't you know that I love them as a mother loves her children?
LÉON
Oh, yes; you can become an aunt to them, then, because you will have to become a mother to your little nephew.
MME. DE RONCHARD
Oh, hold your tongue; you irritate me. (Jean appears with Gilberte for a moment at C.)
JEAN [to servant entering R.]
Joseph, have you forgotten nothing, especially the flowers?