human
What are you doing?
gpt
I am looking for something.
human
Throw those flowers away,
gpt
And why?
human
Throw those flowers away, Laura, Laura.
gpt
No.
human
By our Lady of Sorrows, I beseech you, throw them away.
gpt
You have threatened me. You have no further right to beseech me,
human
Oh God!
gpt
Let us go,
human
Sit down,
gpt
I am waiting,
human
Then you don't understand?
gpt
No--I understand nothing.
human
Can't you imagine?
gpt
I have no imagination.
human
And your heart--does your heart tell you nothing, Laura? Laura, Laura, does your conscience tell you nothing?
gpt
Nothing,
human
Laura, you are my husband's mistress,
gpt
You're mad, Anna.
human
My husband's mistress, Laura.
gpt
You're mad.
human
Oh, liar, liar! Disloyal and vile woman, who has not even the courage of her love!
gpt
Beware, Anna, beware. Strong language at a moment like this is dangerous. Say what you've got to say clearly; but don't insult me. Don't insult me, because your diseased imagination happens to be excited. Do you understand?
human
Oh, heavens, heavens!
gpt
But you can see for yourself, you're mad. You see, you have nothing to say to justify your insults.
human
Oh, Madonna, Madonna, give me strength,
gpt
Do you see? asked Laura.
human
You've called me here to vilify my innocence.
gpt
Laura, said poor Anna, trembling,
human
Laura, it's no guess of mine, no inference, that you are my husband's mistress. I have not read it in any anonymous letter. No servant has told me it. In such a case as this no one has a right to believe an anonymous letter or a servant's denunciation. One cannot on such grounds withdraw one's respect from a person whom one loves.
gpt
Well, Anna.
human
But I have seen, I have seen,
gpt
What have you seen?
human
Oh, horrible, horrible,
gpt
What have you seen?
human
Oh, what a dreadful thing, what a dreadful thing,
gpt
Now--at this very moment--you have got to tell me what you have seen. Do you understand?
human
You wish to know what I have seen, Laura? And you ask me in a rage of offended innocence, of wounded virtue? You are angry, Laura? Angry--you? What right have you to be angry, or to speak to me as you have done? Aren't you afraid? Have you no fear, no suspicions, nothing? You threaten me; you tell me I am mad. You want to know what I have seen; and you are haughty because you deem yourself secure, and me a madwoman. But, to be secure, you should close the doors behind you when you go to an assignation. When you are speaking of love, and kissing, to be secure you should close the doors, Laura, close the doors.
gpt
I don't understand you,
human
This evening, at nine o'clock, when you were in Cesare's room--I came home suddenly--you weren't expecting me--you were alone, secure--and I saw through the door----
gpt
What?
human
As much as can be seen and heard. Remember.
gpt
Why have you done this? Why? Why?
human
Don't you dare to answer? Oh, see how base you are! See how perfidious you are. What manner of woman are you? Why did you do it?
gpt
Because I love Cesare.
human
O Lord, Lord!
gpt
Don't you know it? Haven't your eyes seen it? haven't your ears heard it? Do you imagine that a woman such as I am goes into a man's room if she doesn't love him! That she lets him kiss her, that she kisses him, unless she loves him! What more have you to ask! I love Cesare.
human
Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet,
gpt
And Cesare loves me,
human
Be quiet. You are my sister. You are a young girl. Don't speak such an infamy. Be quiet. Don't say that you and Cesare are two monsters.
gpt
You have seen us together. I love Cesare, and he loves me.
human
Monstrous, infamous!
gpt
It may be infamous, but it is so.
human
But don't you realise what you are doing! Don't you feel that it is infamous; Don't you understand how dreadful your offence is! Am I not your sister--I whom you are betraying!
gpt
I loved Cesare from the beginning. You betrayed me.
human
The excuse of guilt! I loved him, I love him. You are betraying me.
gpt
You love him stupidly, and bore him; I love him well.
human
He's a married man.
gpt
He was married by force, Anna.
human
He is my husband.
gpt
Oh, very slightly!
human
Laura!
gpt
I'm not blind, said Laura, tranquilly.
human
I can take in the situation.
gpt
But your conscience! But your religion! But your modesty, which is soiled by such an atrocious sin!
human
I'm not your husband's mistress, you know that yourself.
gpt
But you love him. You thrill at the touch of his hand. You kiss him. You tell him you love him.
human
Well, all that doesn't signify that I'm his mistress.
gpt
The sin is as great.
human
No, it's not as great, Anna.
gpt
It's a deadly sin merely to love another woman's husband.
human
But I'm not his mistress. Be exact.
gpt
A change of words; the sin is the same.
human
Words have their importance; they are the symbols of facts.
gpt
It's an infamy,
human
Anna, don't insult me.
gpt
Insult you! Do you pretend that that pretty pure face of yours is capable of blushing under an insult? Can your chaste brow be troubled by an insult? You have trampled all innocence and all modesty under foot--you, the daughter of my mother! You have broken your sister's heart--you, the daughter of the same mother! And now you say that I insult you. Good!
human
You have no right to insult me.
gpt
I haven't the right? Before such treachery? I haven't the right? Before such dishonour?
human
If you will call upon your memory, you will see that you haven't the right.
gpt
What do you wish me to remember?
human
A single circumstance. Once upon a time, you, a girl like me, abandoned your home, and eloped with a man you loved, a nobody, a poor obscure nobody. Then you deceived me, Cesare, and everybody else. By that elopement you dishonoured the graves of your father and mother, and you dishonoured your name which is also mine.
gpt
Oh, heavens, heavens, heavens!
human
You passed a whole day out of Naples, in an inn at Pompeii, alone the whole day with a man you loved, in a private room.
gpt
I wasn't Giustino Morelli's mistress.
human
Exactly. Nor am I Cesare Dias'.
gpt
I wasn't Giustino Morelli's mistress,
human
I wasn't behind the door, as you were, to see the truth.
gpt
Oh, cruel, wicked sister--cruel and wicked!
human
And please to have the fairness to remember that on that day Cesare Dias rushed to your rescue. In charity, without saying a word to reproach you, he brought you back to the home you had deserted. In charity, without insulting you, I opened my arms to welcome you. In charity we nursed you through your long illness, and never once did we reproach you. You see, you see, you're unjust and ungrateful.
gpt
But you have wounded me in my love, Laura. But I adore Cesare, and I am horribly jealous of him. I can't banish the thought of your love for him; I can remember nothing but your kisses. I feel as if I were going mad. Oh, Laura, Laura, you who were so pure and beautiful, you who are worthy of a young man's love, why do you throw away your life and your honour for Cesare?
human
But you? Don't you also love him? You too are young. Yet didn't you love him so desperately that you would gladly have died, if he hadn't married you? I have followed your example, that is all. As you love him, I love him, Anna. We are sisters, and the same passion burns in our veins.
gpt
Don't say that, don't say it. My love will last as long as my life, Laura.
human
And so will mine.
gpt
Don't say it, don't say it.
human
Until I die, Anna.
gpt
Don't say it.
human
My blood is like yours; my nerves are like yours; my heart is as ardent as yours. My soul is consumed with love, as yours is. We are the daughters of the same parents. Cesare has fascinated you, Cesare has fascinated me.
gpt
Oh, heavens, heavens! I must kill myself then. I must die!
human
Bah!
gpt
I will kill myself, Laura.
human
Those who say it don't do it.
gpt
You are deceiving yourself, wicked, scornful creature.
human
Those who say it don't do it,
gpt
But understand me! I can't endure this betrayal. Understand! I--I alone have the right to love Cesare. He is mine. I won't give him up to anybody. My only refuge, my only comfort, my only consolation is in my love. Don't you see that I have nothing else?
human
Luigi Caracciolo loves you, though,
gpt
What are you saying to me?
human
You might fall in love with him.
gpt
You propose an infamy to me.
human
But consider. I love Cesare; Cesare loves me and not you. But Caracciolo loves you. Well, why not fall in love with him?
gpt
Because it would be infamous.
human
You are beginning to insult me again, Anna. It is late. I am going away.
gpt
No, don't go yet, Laura. Think how terrible this thing is for me. Listen to me, Laura, and call to aid all your kindness. I have insulted you, it is true; but you can't know what jealousy is like, you can't imagine the unendurable torture of it. Call to aid your goodness, Laura. Think--we were nourished at the same breast, the same mother's hands caressed us. Think--we have made our journey in life together. Laura, Laura, my sister! You have betrayed me; you have outraged me; in the past seven hours I have suffered all that it is humanly possible to suffer; you can't know what jealousy is like. Don't be impatient. Listen to me. It is a terrible moment. Don't laugh. I am not exaggerating. Listen to me carefully. Laura, all that you have done, I forget it, I forgive it. Do you hear? I forgive you. I am sure your heart is good. You will understand all the affection and all the meekness there are in my forgiveness.
human
And what do you expect in exchange for this pardon?
gpt
Laura, Laura, you must be good and great, since I have forgiven you.
human
What is your price for this forgiveness?
gpt
You must not love Cesare any more. Bravely you must cast that impure love out of your soul, which it degrades. You must not love him any more. And then, not only will my pardon be complete and absolute, but you will find in me the fondest and tenderest of sisters. I will devote my life to proving to you how much I love you. My sole desire will be to make you happy; I will be your best and surest friend. But you must be good and strong, Laura; you must remember that you are my sister; you must forget Cesare.
human
Anna, I cannot.
gpt
Listen, listen. Don't answer yet. Don't decide yet. Don't speak the last word yet, the awful word. Think, Laura, it is your future, it is your life, that you are staking upon this love: a black future, a fatal certainty of death, if you persist in it. But, on the contrary, if you forget it--if a chaste and innocent impulse of affection for me persuades you to put it from you--what peace, what calm! You will find another man, a worthier man, a man of your own loftiness of spirit, who will understand you, who will make you happy, whom you can love with all your soul, in the consciousness of having done your duty. You will be a happy wife, your husband will be a happy man, you will be a mother, you will have children--you will have children, you! But you must not love Cesare any more.
human
Anna, I can't help it.
gpt
Laura, don't make your mind up yet. For pity's sake, hear me. We must find a way out of it, an escape. You will travel, you will make a journey, a long journey, abroad; that will interest you. I'll ask Cousin Scibilia to go with you. She has nothing to detain her; she's a widow; she will go. You will travel. You can't think how travelling relieves one's sufferings. You will see new countries, beautiful countries, where your mind will rise high above the petty, every-day miseries of life. Laura, Laura, see how I pray you, see how I implore you. We have the same blood in our veins. We are children of the same mother. You must not love Cesare any more.
human
Anna, I can't help it.