"And you love me?"
"Yes, you, I love you!"
"Marianne, you know that it would be very wicked and wrong to lie! It is not necessary to love me at all if you must cease to love me!"
"In other words, one should never lend money unless one is obliged to lend one's whole fortune."
He felt extremely dissatisfied with Marianne's ironical remark. She looked at him with an odd expression which was all the more disquieting and intoxicating.
"Let us speak no more about that, shall we?" she said. "I repeat to you that I am satisfied at having seen Monsieur de Rosas again, because it affords my self-love its revenge. Now, whether he comes back or not, it matters little to me. He has made the amende honorable. That is the principal thing, and you, my dear, must not be jealous; I find Othello's rôle tiresome; oh! yes, tiresome!—The more so, because you have no right to treat me as a Desdemona. The Code does not permit it."
"You want to remind me again, then, that I am married? A moment ago, you stabbed me by pin-thrusts."
"In speaking of your household? Say then with knife-thrusts."
"Why did you mention my wife before Monsieur de Rosas?"
"Why," said Marianne, "you do not understand anything. It was for your sake, for you alone, in order to explain the presence in Marianne's house, of a minister who is considered to lead a puritan life. Nothing could be more simple!—Would you have me tell him that you neglect your wife and that you are my lover? Perhaps you would have liked that better!"