human
It is cured, but you have a great scar there. Mon Dieu! shall you always have it?
gpt
I hope so!
human
What do you say? you hope so? Why?
gpt
Because it will remind me of the day when I had the good fortune to be of some little service to you.
human
Some little service! Why do you say a little, when it is quite possible that you saved my life?
gpt
Ah! if you really do owe me anything, it depends only on you to pay the debt.
human
How, pray?
gpt
You cannot guess, madame?
human
No, monsieur; I am not good at guessing.
gpt
Oh! I beg your pardon--but you should be better able than any other to divine the thoughts that come from the heart.
human
Why I, more than another?
gpt
Because there is a something in your eyes which indicates their perspicacity.
human
If my eyes have such a peculiar expression, I shall not dare to raise them again.
gpt
Oh! do not deprive me of the pleasure of looking at them; that would be a punishment.
human
Come, come, monsieur, don't talk to me in this way; you are in the habit of making pretty speeches to all women, no matter how little they may deserve them; but, as a general rule, they are accustomed to your language, to your flatteries, and they laugh at them because they know that they must not take too seriously the gallant speeches of a man to whom love is only a pleasant pastime. But I am not one of those women, monsieur! I go into society very little, and the life that artists lead is entirely unfamiliar to me. You will agree, will you not, that if I should take what you have said to me as being said in earnest, if I should place any reliance on your words, I should make a great mistake and should very soon have reason to repent?
gpt
Ah! madame, if I had the good fortune to be loved, I should be too happy! But, no; women are all inconstant, they never love truly; they want to be adored, but they reserve the right to love us only in accordance with their caprice.
human
You have a very singular way of paying court to one of them!
gpt
Oh! I beg your pardon, madame, I beg your pardon; I didn't mean that to apply to you!
human
But you were speaking of women in general?
gpt
True; but, of course, there are exceptions.
human
Have you never met any of the exceptions?
gpt
No, I have not had that good fortune.
human
And that is what has given you such a bad opinion of all women?
gpt
Oh! I am wrong, no doubt; for, after all, the fact that no one has ever loved me doesn't prove that they may not have loved others.
human
Do you say that no one has ever loved you, monsieur?
gpt
Never really, madame.
human
Are you quite sure of that?
gpt
Only too sure, alas!
human
But, monsieur, have you, who think that no one has ever really loved you, have you yourself ever loved in that way?
gpt
Why, I think so----
human
Ah! you are not perfectly sure!
gpt
When one is inclined to love passionately, madame, if he sees that his passion is not reciprocated, don't you think that that should suffice to lessen his ardor?
human
No, monsieur, I do not think so; I think that when one is really in love, it is not so easy to banish from one's heart the object of one's love. In short, it is my opinion that love is not to be reasoned with, and that when you come to the point where you begin to reason you have ceased to love. But, upon my word, this is a strange conversation; one would think that we had to write an essay on the proper way to love.--Have you produced a new play or written a new novel since I saw you?
gpt
No, madame, no; I have done nothing.
human
You have been lazy, eh? Fie! that's very bad!
gpt
No, I haven't been lazy; but I have been preoccupied--which is by no means the same thing, and is a much greater hindrance to work.
human
You know Monsieur Lucien Grischard, do you not, monsieur?
gpt
I do, madame; but how did you know?
human
Oh! in the most natural way; this Monsieur Lucien knows--indeed, I may say that he is courting a young lady who is my most intimate friend, Mademoiselle Juliette Mirotaine.
gpt
Yes, he is very much in love with her, and would like to marry her; he has told me that.
human
And Juliette has no secrets from me; she is very fond of this Lucien, whom her father refuses to allow her to marry. She has told me all her sorrows.
gpt
Very good; but I don't quite see where I come in.
human
If my friend tells me everything that interests her, do you not think, monsieur, that I should do as much? That accident of mine--which, but for you, might have been so disastrous to me--I told her about that, and naturally I told her the name of the person who had--burned himself in his efforts to put out the fire. When she heard your name, which is so well known, she cried: 'That gentleman is a friend of Lucien!'--And that is how I knew that you know him. Is that explanation satisfactory, monsieur?
gpt
Ah! madame, it is a thousand times too kind of you to give it to me; my reason for asking was to find out whether you had remembered me.
human
It would have been very ungrateful on my part to forget you so soon.
gpt
Mon Dieu! madame, a very clever man has said: 'Ingratitude is independence of the heart!'--That is rather sad, but it is more or less true.
human
No, monsieur; ingratitude simply proves that one has no heart.