Madame Aubin

(Peltier advances like a man who has the right his interlocutor is speaking of or believes he's going to have it.)

MARIE And I will never give it to you.

PELTIER Madame.

MARIE Do you hear, sir?

(The two stiffen and look each other in the face. A silence.)

PELTIER Then why did you come with me of your own free will, or even on your own initiative?

MARIE (who's settled down) What do you want? I've changed my mind.

PELTIER (very cold and speaking through his teeth) Fine. You've tricked me! At this point I'm not a young man. No one makes a fool of me! For, my darling, I don't think that a caprice of yours, such a sudden turnabout, such a flash of virtue--

MARIE Don't use that word virtue any more. It is terrible to my ears. I was telling you just now that I've something like fear of the present. Yes, fear to remain here this way. But I was in the process of adding that the present doesn't terrify me. It was then that you shrieked out at the moment I was going to explain to you ho