Mary Magdalene, Lucius Verus
(Enter Lucius Verus. Mary Magdalene runs up to him and throws herself into his arms.)
You at last, my Verus!... For three days I have awaited you, for three days I have called you. Men grant me my beauty when its triumph brings me nothing but regret and disgust. And I ask myself, is that beauty really powerless when, at last, there is a question of the happiness which every woman has the right to expect in her life?...
Verus
I know not if I shall be able to give you the happiness that is your due, Magdalene; but be assured that your beauty never gained a more complete victory....
Mary Magdalene
What care I now for its victory!... It is I who am vanquished, utterly vanquished beforehand, without daring to confess it to myself, without being able to hide it from my indifference, so odiously acquired, or from my vanity, which has never been more than the shameful crown of my shame!... But why keep me waiting so long?... I thought that everything was abandoning me, that all was lost because of the dreadful words which I spoke at our good Silanus’ and which were not true, which were only a profounder lie then my other lies, because I was mad, because I did not know, because I did not wish for an impossible happiness....
Verus
You well know, Magdalene, that I never believed you the woman you depicted.... But now neither do I dare believe in the happiness that approaches.... I am quite dazzled, I doubt, I grope in the dark.... I do not recognize the voice that has so often and so harshly repelled me.