Diane [puzzled]. After?
Madame le Bargy. How long did you know Maurice?
Diane. It would be two years this March.
Madame le Bargy. You loved each other all that time?
Diane. From the very first. We never had any of those preliminaries in which people have a chance to deceive each other. We came together directly and frankly and we never regretted it.
Madame le Bargy. Maurice was very young.
Diane. He was twenty-four. He was eager for life. But you two had kept him back. You had warmed his heart with your kind of love until he had begun to think it was the only love which is worthy.
Madame le Bargy. And you believe that that isn't so?
Diane [simply]. I believe that there can be no flame like the love between two young people who are one.
Madame le Bargy [going to Diane and putting a hand on her shoulder]. Poor little woman.