Valsin. Well, she thought she was in politics, didn't she? [Suavely.] You may be sure she thoroughly enjoyed her hallucination that she was a great figure in the Revolution—which was cutting off the heads of so many of her relatives and old friends! Don't waste your pity, my dear.
Eloise [looking at him fixedly]. Citizen, you must have thought a great deal about my unhappy friend. She might be flattered by so searching an interest.
Valsin [negligently]. Not interest in her, governess, but in the Emigrant who cools his heels on the other side of that door, greatly to my enjoyment, waiting my pleasure to arrest him. The poor wretch is the one remaining lover of this girl; faithful because he let his passion for her become a habit; and he will never get over it until he has had possession. She has made him suffer frightfully, but I shall never forgive her for not having dealt him the final stroke. It would have saved me all the bother I have been put to in avenging the injury he did me.
Eloise [frowning]. What "final stroke" could she have "dealt" him?
Valsin [with sudden vehement intensity]. She could have loved him! [He strikes the table with his fist.] I see it! I see it! Beauty's husband! [Pounding the table with each exclamation, his voice rising in excitement.] What a vision! This damned, proud, loving Louis, a pomade bearer! A buttoner! An errand-boy to the perfumer's, to the chemist's, to the milliner's! A groom of the powder-closet—
Eloise [snatching at the opportunity]. How noisy you are!
Valsin [discomfited, apologetically]. You see, it is only so lately that we of "the People" have dared even to whisper. Of course, now that we are free to shout, we overdo it. We let our voices out, we let our joys out, we let our hates out. We let everything out—except our prisoners! [He smiles winningly.]
Eloise [slowly]. Do you guess what all this bluster—this tirade upon the wickedness of beauty—makes me think?
Valsin. Certainly. Being a woman, you cannot imagine a bitterness which is not "personal."
Eloise [laughing]. "Being a woman," I think that the person who has caused you the greatest suffering in your life must be very good-looking!