human
Then you are more infamous than Laura,
gpt
The vocabulary of Othello, he cried, calmly.
human
But, you know, it has been proved that Othello was epileptic.
gpt
And he killed Desdemona,
human
Does it strike you that I look like Desdemona?
gpt
Not you, not you.
human
And who then?
gpt
Laura.
human
Your folly is becoming dangerous, Anna.
gpt
Imminently, terribly dangerous, Cesare.
human
Fortunately you take it out in words, not in actions,
gpt
Last night Laura owed her life to a miracle,
human
But what has been going on here? he exclaimed, agitated, rising to his feet.
gpt
And where is Laura?
human
Oh, fear nothing, fear nothing on her account. I've not harmed her. She's alive. She's well. She's very well. No wrinkle troubles her beauty, no anxiety disturbs her mind. Fear nothing. She is a sacred person. Your love protects her. Listen, Cesare; she was here last night alone in this room with me; and I had over her the right given me by heaven, given me by men; and I _did not kill her_.
gpt
And if it is permitted to talk in your own high-sounding rhetoric, what was the ground of your right to kill her?
human
Laura has betrayed me. She's in love with you.
gpt
Nothing but this was lacking! That Laura should be in love with me! I'm glad to hear it. You are sure of it? It's an important matter for my vanity. Are you sure of it?
human
Don't jeer at me, Cesare. You don't realise what you are doing. Don't smile like that. Don't drive me to extremes.
gpt
There are two of you in love with me--for I suppose you still love me, don't you? It's a family misfortune. But since you both adore me, it's probably not my fault.
human
Cesare, Cesare!
gpt
And confess that I did nothing to win you.
human
You have betrayed me, Cesare. You are in love with Laura.
gpt
Are you sure of it?
human
Sure, Cesare.
gpt
But bear in mind that certainties are somewhat rare in this world. For the past few minutes I've been examining myself, to discover if indeed I had in my soul a guilty passion for Laura. Perhaps I am mad about her, without knowing it. But you, who are an expert in these affairs, you are sure of it. Have the goodness to explain to me, oh, passionate Signora Dias, in what manner I have betrayed you, loving your sister. Describe to me the whole blackness of my treason. Tell me in what my--infamy--consists. Wasn't it infamy you called it? I'm not learned in the language of the heart.
human
Oh, God! oh, God!
gpt
I hope we've not to pass the morning invoking the Lord, the Virgin, and the Saints. What do you suppose they care for your idiocy, Anna? They are too wise; and I should be wiser if I cared nothing for it, either. But when your rhetoric casts a slur upon others, it can't be overlooked. I beg you, Signora Dias, to do your husband the kindness of stating your accusations precisely. Set forth the whole atrocity of his conduct. I fold my hands, and sit here on this chair like a king on his judgment-seat. I wait, only adding that you have already used up a good deal of my patience.
human
But has Laura told you nothing?
gpt
Nothing, my dear lady.
human
Where is she?
gpt
She's gone to church, I hear.
human
Quietly gone to church?
gpt
Do you fancy that all women dance in perpetual convulsions to the tune of their sentiments, Signora Dias? No, for the happiness of men, no. Our dear and wise Minerva has gone to mass, for to-day is Sunday.
human
With that horrible sin on her conscience! Does she think she can lie even to God? But it's a sacrilege.
gpt
Ah, we're to have a mystical drama, a passion-play now, are we? Dear lady, I see that you have nothing to say to me, and I make my adieux.
human
Don't go, Cesare; don't leave me. Since you will have it so, you shall hear from my lips, though they tremble with horror in pronouncing it, the story of your infamy. I will repeat it to you to-day as I repeated it to Laura last night; and I hope it may burn in your heart as it burns in mine. Ah, you laugh; you have the boldness to laugh. You treat this talk as a joke. You sneer at my anger. You would like to get away from me. I annoy you. My voice wearies you. And what I have to say to you will perhaps bring a blush of shame even to your face, corrupt man that you are. But you cannot leave me. You are obliged to remain here. You must give me an account of your betrayal. Ah, don't smile, don't smile; that will do no good; your smile can't turn me aside. I won't allow you to leave me. Remember, Cesare, remember what you did last evening. Remember and be ashamed. Remember how cruel, how wicked, how atrocious it was, what happened last evening between you and my sister. Under my eyes Cesare, and for long minutes, so that I could have no doubt. I could not imagine that I was mad or dreaming. I saw it all, my ears heard the words you spoke, the sound of your kisses, your long kisses. I could not doubt. Oh, how horrible it is for a woman who loves to see the proof that she is betrayed! What new, unknown capacities for sorrow open in her soul! Oh, what have you done to me, Cesare, you whom I adored! You and my sister Laura, what have you done to me!
gpt
Is it your habit to listen at doors? It's not considered good form,
human
Do you wish me to die, Cesare? How could you forget that I loved you, that I had given you my youth, my beauty, all my heart, all my soul, that I adored you with every breath, that you alone were the reason for my being? You have forgotten all this, forgotten that I live only for you, my love--you have forgotten it?
gpt
These sentiments do you honour, though they're somewhat exaggerated. Buy a book of manners, and learn that it's not the thing to listen at doors.
human
It was my right to listen, do you understand? I was defending my love, my happiness, my all; but the terrible thing I saw has destroyed for ever everything I cared for.
gpt
Did you really see such a terrible thing?
human
If I should live a thousand years, nothing could blot it from my mind. Oh, I shall die, I shall die; I can only forget it by dying.
gpt
You are suffering from cerebral dilatation. It was nothing but a harmless scene of gallantry--it was a jest, Anna.
human
Laura said that she loved you. I heard her.
gpt
Of course, girls of her age always say they're in love.
human
She kissed you, Cesare. I saw her.
gpt
And what of that? Girls of her age are fond of kissing. They're none the worse for it.
human
She was in your arms, Cesare, and for so long a time that to me it seemed a century.
gpt
It's not a bad place, you know, Signora Dias,
human
Oh, how low, how monstrous! And you, Cesare, you told her that you loved her. I heard you.
gpt
A man always loves a little the woman that is with him. Besides, I couldn't tell her that I hated her; it would scarcely have been polite. I know my book of manners. There's at least one member of our family who preserves good form.
human
Cesare, you kissed her.
gpt
I'd defy you to have done otherwise, if you'd been a man. You don't understand these matters.
human
On the lips, Cesare.
gpt
It's my habit. It's not a custom of my invention, either. It's rather old. I suspect it took its rise with Adam and Eve.
human
But she's a young girl, an innocent young girl, Cesare.
gpt
Girls are not so innocent as they used to be, Anna. I assure you the world is changing.
human
She is my sister, Cesare.
gpt
That's a circumstance quite without importance. Relationship counts for nothing.
human
You, then, Cesare, she said,
gpt
No, I don't know. But if you can tell me, I shall be indebted for the favour.
human
You are a man without heart, without conscience; a soul without greatness and without enthusiasm; you are a lump of flesh, exhausted by unworthy pleasures and morbid desires. You are a ruin, in heart, in mind, in senses; you belong to the class of men who are rotten; you fill me with fright and with pity. I did not know that I was giving my hand to a corpse scented with heliotrope, that I was uniting my life to the mummy of a gentleman, whose vitiated senses could not be pleased by a young, beautiful, and loving wife, but must crave her sister, her pure, chaste, younger sister! Have you ever loved, Cesare? Have you ever for a moment felt the immensity of real love? In your selfishness you have made an idol of yourself, an idol without greatness. A thing without viscera, without pulses, without emotion! You are corrupt, perverted, depraved, even to the point of betraying your wife who adores you, with her sister whom you do not love! Ah, you are a coward, a dastard; that's what you are, a dastard!