The Stepmother | Page 2

room, while you are talking business. I should like to superintend the arrangement of her toilet. Young people do not always understand what is most becoming to them.
The General She has no expense spared her! During the last eighteen months her dress has cost twice as much as it previously did; after all, poor girl, it is the only amusement she has.
Gertrude How can you say it is her only amusement while she has the privilege of living with us! If it were not my happy lot to be your wife, I should like to be your daughter. I will never leave you, not I! Did you say for the last eighteen months? That is singular! Well, when I come to think of it, she has begun to care more about laces, jewels, and other pretty things.
The General She is quite rich enough to indulge her tastes.
Gertrude And she is now of age. (Aside) Her fondness of dress is the smoke. Can there be any fire? (Exit.)

SCENE SECOND
The General (alone) What a pearl among women! Thus I am made happy after twenty-six campaigns, a dozen wounds, and the death of an angel, whose place she has taken in my heart; truly a kind Providence owed me some such recompense as this, if it were only to console me for the death of the Emperor.

SCENE THIRD
Godard and the General.
Godard (entering) Well, General!
The General Ah! good day, Godard! I hope you are come to spend the day with us?
Godard I thought perhaps I might spend the week, General, if you should regard favorably the request which I shall venture to make of you.
The General Go in and win! I know what request you mean--My wife is on your side. Ah, Godard, you have attacked the fortress at its weak point!
Godard General, you are an old soldier, and have no taste for mere phrases. In all your undertakings you go straight ahead, as you did when under fire.
The General Straight and facing the whole battery.
Godard That suits me well, for I am rather timid.
The General You! I owe you, my dear friend, an apology; I took you for a man who was too well aware of his own worth.
Godard You took me to be conceited! But General, as a matter of fact, I intend to marry because I don't know how to pay any court to women.
The General (aside) What a civilian! (Aloud) How is this? You talk like an old man, and-- that is not the way to win my daughter.
Godard Do not misunderstand me. I have a warm heart; I wish only to feel sure that I shall be accepted.
The General That means that you don't mind attacking unwalled towns.
Godard That is not it at all, General. You quite alarm me, with your banter.
The General What do you mean then?
Godard I understand nothing about the tricks of women. I know no more when their yes means no, than when their no means yes; and when I am in love, I wish to be loved in return.
The General (aside) With such ideas as those he has precious little chance.
Godard There are plenty of men like me, men who are supremely bored by this little warfare of manners and whims.
The General But there is something also delightful in it,--I mean in the feminine show of resistance, which gives one the pleasure of overcoming it.
Godard Thank you, nothing of that sort for me! When I am hungry, I do not wish to coquette with my soup. I like to have things decided, and care very little how the decision is arrived at, although I do come from Normandy. In the world, I see coxcombs who creep into the favor of women by saying to them, "Ah! madame, what a pretty frock you have on. Your taste is perfect. You are the only person who could wear that," and starting from such speeches as that they go on and on--and gain their end. They are wonderful fellows, upon my honor! I don't see how they reach success by such idle talk. I should beat about the bush through all eternity before I could tell a pretty woman the effect she had made on me.
The General The men of the Empire were not of that sort.
Godard It is on account of that, that I put on a bold face! This boldness when backed by an income of forty thousand francs is accepted without protest, and wins its way to the front. That is why you took me for a good match. So long as there are no mortgages on the rich pasture lands of the Auge Valley, so long as one possesses a fine chateau, well furnished--for my wife need bring with her nothing but her trousseau, since she will find there even the cashmeres and