She sighed. "It is wrong of me, I own!"
"It is highly unnatural," said I.
"No, monsieur; it is far from being unnatural, and I will tell you why —he is the only man I have ever known, in all my vagabond life, who realised that a struggling actress might have the soul of a gentlewoman. Before I met him, I had never heard a man speak to me with courtesy, excepting on the stage; I had never known a man to take my hand respectfully when he was not performing behind the footlights…. I met him first in the country; I was playing the Queen in Ruy Blas, and the manager brought him to me in the wings. In everything he said and did he was different from others. We were friends for months before he told me that he loved me. His friendship has been the gift of God, to brighten my miserable lot. Never to see him any more would be awful to me!"
I perceived that if she was not in love with him she was so dangerously near to it that a trifle might turn the scale. De Lavardens had the same thought. His glance at me was apprehensive.
"However, you acknowledge that you are behaving badly!" I exclaimed. "It is all right for you, friendship is enough for you, and you pursue your career. But for him, it is different; he seeks your love, and he neglects his duties. For him to spend his life sighing for you would be monstrous, and for him to marry you would be fatal. If you like him so much, be just to him, set him free! Tell him that he is not to visit you any more."
"He does not visit me; he has never been inside my lodging."
"Well, that he is not to write there—that there are to be no more dinners, drives, bouquets!"
"And I do not let him squander money on me. I am not that kind of woman."
"We do not accuse you, mademoiselle. On the contrary, we appeal to your good heart. Be considerate, be brave! Say good-bye to him!"
"You are asking me to suffer cruelly," she moaned.