human
Ah! Lucien!
gpt
Adhémar!
human
Where are you going, my dear Lucien?
gpt
I am going--upon my word! I don't know where I am going. I am walking about at random--I am so unhappy! so desperate!
human
Really? Come, tell me your troubles, my poor Lucien. I am none too cheerful myself, by the way. So we will share our sorrows; that always helps a little. Hasn't your invention, your little business enterprise, succeeded?
gpt
Why, yes, it is going on very well, and that is just the reason I am in such despair.
human
I don't understand you.
gpt
As my business seemed to be prospering, I thought I might hope that Juliette's hand would be given to me at last. But, instead of that, Monsieur Mirotaine has turned me out of his house and forbidden me ever to go there again, all because Dodichet conceived the unfortunate idea of helping along my suit by introducing to the Mirotaines a pretended millionaire Italian count, who was to propose for Juliette; they got themselves invited to dinner, and Monsieur Mirotaine went to some expense to entertain them. Then Dubotté arrived and laid bare the fraud. Monsieur Mirotaine saw that they had made a fool of him, and he is convinced that I was in the plot with Dodichet; hence his anger against me, and the prohibition to go to his house again!
human
What a devil of a fellow that Dodichet is! I remember perfectly that you definitely forbade him to play one of his wretched jokes on this Mirotaine.
gpt
He meant to do me a service, so I can't be angry with him. And yet, he is the cause of my being turned out of the house.
human
That old miser's anger will cool down, if you succeed in your undertakings. His daughter will make him listen to reason.
gpt
But meanwhile I can't see her, or have any understanding with her. When I was admitted to her father's house, we found ways of exchanging a word or two in secret. But now that I can never see her, how am I to let her know anything about me? Why, to be unable to see, even for a single minute, the woman one loves, is the cruelest kind of torture, Adhémar, I tell you!
human
To whom are you saying that?
gpt
Do you mean to say that you can't see the woman you love?
human
In other words, the woman I loved did not love me! or she deceived me, which amounts to the same thing. So I ceased to see her; and yet, I know perfectly well that I love her still.
gpt
Are you quite sure that she deceived you?
human
Quite sure; as sure as a man can be when he sees that a woman has secrets from him. Tell me, Lucien, suppose you should learn that your Juliette received visits, of which she never breathed a word to you; wouldn't you think that she had some intrigue on hand? I assume, of course, that she is living in her own apartment and is mistress of her actions.
gpt
If Juliette was her own mistress and lived in the most modest little room imaginable, it would be of no use for anyone to say to me: 'She receives other men than you;' I would not suspect her for an instant!
human
Sapristi! what confidence! And suppose you had proof that she received men secretly?
gpt
Why, I should consider that she must have some reason for concealing those visits from me; for she certainly has none for telling me, for swearing to me that she loves me, if she doesn't love me. When I enter the room where she is, doesn't she always receive me with the sweetest smile? can I not read in her eyes all the pleasure that my presence affords her? Ah! not until she ceased to be the same to me, should I have the slightest fear that she no longer loved me!
human
You have a happy disposition, and no mistake! You are not jealous, are you?
gpt
Oh, no! not at all!
human
Tell me, do you know Madame Dermont? She is a friend of Mademoiselle Juliette, I believe?
gpt
Madame Dermont? Yes; I met her several times at Juliette's before Monsieur Mirotaine had forbidden me to talk with his daughter. She's a most attractive woman. Juliette has no better friend. They tell each other their joys and their sorrows, and neither of them has any secrets from the other. She knows that Juliette loves me; and if she could do anything to help us, she would ask nothing better. But she hasn't the power, poor woman! She has had a heap of trouble of her own.
human
Who? Nathalie?--I mean Madame Dermont. What trouble? She never mentioned it to me.
gpt
Do you know her, then?
human
Yes, a little. I go to her house sometimes. But this trouble of hers? Tell me about it, I beg you, dear old Lucien!
gpt
I heard about it from Juliette, to whom, as I just told you, Madame Dermont confides all her sorrows.
human
But these troubles of hers? these troubles? for God's sake, come to the point!
gpt
How deeply interested you seem to be in anything that concerns that young woman! Can it be, by any chance----
human
Yes, yes, I love her, I adore her, I am mad over her! And these troubles?--in pity's name, my friend, tell me all you know!
gpt
Madame Dermont, as you know, is a widow; but her husband had a brother,--a sad scamp, by the way,--who would never do anything but drink, gamble, smoke, and haunt low resorts. When Monsieur Dermont died, Alexandre--that was the brother's name--Alexandre was frantic with rage when he found that he was not his heir, but that the whole fortune--rather a modest one, by the way--which his brother had left went to the widow. He called on his sister-in-law, made an unpleasant scene, and went so far as to threaten her; but she has a clear head and a strong character, and she turned him out of the house. Thereupon, Alexandre saw that he had gone to work in the wrong way, and that he would not obtain anything from Madame Dermont by threats; so he called on her again, and that time he did not play the swashbuckler, but wept and whined over his sad plight. The young widow did not turn him out again, but gave him five hundred francs and advised him to enlist; that was the only profession in which he could hope to make anything of himself. Alexandre promised to follow that advice; but, after a few months, he came back to his sister-in-law and told her he was dying of hunger, that he had eaten nothing since the day before; and he smelt horribly of brandy and tobacco!
human
And tobacco? He smoked, did he? Ah! now I understand. Poor woman! But why didn't she tell me all this?
gpt
Why? Because it is a painful thing to say that a man who is closely allied to you, who bears your name,--for Alexandre's name is Dermont,--in fact, you don't like to confess that such a ne'er-do-well, such a blackguard, is your brother, or that he has, at all events, the right to call you his sister.
human
And the wretch has come again to torment Nathalie, I suppose?
gpt
Mon Dieu! yes; she doesn't know how to get rid of him! And yet, it is very hard to continue giving money away when it serves only to encourage vice and debauchery.
human
Oh! I'll rid her of her miserable brother-in-law! Dear Nathalie! But why didn't she confide in me? No matter! I am a wretch; I am unworthy to be loved by such a sweet, dear woman!--Lucien, give me your hand. Ah! my friend, if you knew how much good you have done me! You have brought me back to life, to happiness, to love--that is to say, to her! Adieu, Lucien, adieu! I hasten--I fly to beg for forgiveness. She will grant it, won't she? she will grant it?