ANDRE. "My dearest friend, I really think I should. You see I have just fallen in love with an innocent little angel. By Jove! there she is. Tell me her name."
CLOTILDE. "That is MARGUERITE, a protegé of mine. You shall marry her. Go and make love to her." (He goes.)
CLOTILDE. "The base wretch deserts me. I will proceed to become a tigress. I will marry him to FERNANDE, and then tell him what a base wretch she is. We'll see how he will like that. He thinks her innocent! Ha! ha! (Aside.--On reflection she is innocent according to this version of the play; but SARDOU told the truth about her, and I will act on the supposition that she is a wretch.) That will be a fit revenge, and I can't do better than rave about it for a while." (Raves accordingly until the curtain falls.)
COLD-BLOODED CRITIC. "I have never seen a finer piece of acting than that of Miss MORANT in the last scene. But then her revenge becomes absurd when you reflect that FERNANDE is just what ANDRE fancies her, an innocent girl. That is a fair specimen of the way in which American writers adapt French plays. They sacrifice probability to prudery."
FASHIONABLE LADY. "How sweetly penitent FERNANDE looks in her black dress. I hope she will be innocent enough to wear white in the next act. One shouldn't give way to repentance or grief for too long a time. Now when my husband died I was in the deepest grief for six months, and then slipped into half mourning so gradually that no one noticed the change."
ACT III. FERNANDE and CLOTILDE are discovered discussing the question of FERNANDE's wedding outfit.
FERNANDE. "But does ANDRE know how naughty I behaved when I was an innocent girl in a gambling-house?"
CLOTILDE. "He does, my dear, but you mustn't speak of it to him,"
FERNANDE. "I will write to him then, and confess all. There isn't anything to confess, but still I am determined to confess it."
CLOTILDE. "Write if you choose. (Aside. I will put the letter in a lamp-post box, so that he will never get it. On second thought I will keep it. Some day I might want to use it.")