Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales. Guy de Maupassant

DE SALLUS

      Yes, I think you are. Formerly my husband neglected and abandoned me, doubtless finding me very insipid; but now he finds me much improved, and has returned to me. It is very easy to understand, and moreover, it is the worse for him, for he must believe that I have been a faithful wife to him all my life.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Madeline!

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Well, what?

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Does a girl cease to be a faithful wife, if, when deserted by the man who has assumed charge of her existence, and her happiness, and her love, and her ideals, she refuses to resign herself—young, beautiful, and full of hope—to eternal isolation and everlasting solitude?

      MME. DE SALLUS

      I think I have already told you that there are certain things which it is not necessary to discuss, and this is one of them. [The front door bell sounds twice.] Here is my husband. Please be silent. He is in a gloomy mood just now.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL [rises]

      I think I shall go. I am not in love with your husband any more, for many reasons, and it is difficult for me to be polite to him when I despise him, and when I know that he ought to despise me, and would despise me when I shake hands with him, did he know all.

      MME. DE SALLUS [annoyed]

      How many times must I tell you that all this is entirely out of place?

SCENE II.

       Table of Contents

      (The same, including M. de Sallus.)

      Enter M. de Sallus, evidently in a bad temper. He looks for a moment at Mme. de Sallus and at Jacques de Randol, who is taking his leave; then comes forward.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Ah! Sallus.

      M. DE SALLUS

      How are you, Randol? Surely you are not going because I came.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      No, but my time is up. I have an appointment at the club at midnight, and now it is half after eleven. [They shake hands.] Have you come from the first performance of “Mahomet”?

      M. DE SALLUS

      Oh! Of course.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      People say that it should be a great success.

      M. DE SALLUS

      It doubtless will be.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL [shakes hands again with De SALLUS and Madame de Sallus]

      Well, till I see you again.

      M. DE SALLUS

      Till then, my dear fellow.

      JACQUES DE RANDOL

      Madame, adieu.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Adieu, Monsieur de Randol. [Exit Randol.]

SCENE III.

       Table of Contents

      (M. de Sallus and Mme. de Sallus.)

      M. DE SALLUS [sinks into an armchair]

      Was Randol here any length of time?

      MME. DE SALLUS

      No, possibly half an hour.

      M. DE SALLUS [meditatively]

      Half an hour plus a whole hour makes an hour and a half, does it not? Time seems to fly when you are with him.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      What do you mean by an hour and a half?

      M. DE SALLUS

      Just what I say. When I saw the carriage waiting at the door, I asked the footman, who was within. He told me that it was M. Jacques de Randol. “Has he been here long?” I asked. “He has been here since ten,” said the footman. Admitting that the man might have been mistaken, we will say, in the matter of a quarter of an hour, that would make an hour and a quarter, at the least.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Oh, ho! What is this new attitude of yours? Have I not a right to receive whom I like now?

      M. DE SALLUS

      Oh, my dear, I deny you nothing, nothing, nothing. The only thing that astonishes me is that you do not know the difference between half an hour and an hour and a half.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Are you looking for a scene? If you wish a quarrel, say so. I shall know how to answer you. You are simply in a bad temper. Go to bed and sleep, if you can.

      M. DE SALLUS

      I am not looking for a quarrel, neither am I in bad humor. I only state that time flies with you when you pass it in the company of Jacques de Randol.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Yes, it does go quickly; far more quickly than when I am with you.

      M. DE SALLUS

      He is a very charming fellow, and I know you like him; and, moreover, he must like you very much, since he comes here every day.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      These insinuations are distasteful to me. Please speak plainly and say what you mean. Are you assuming the rôle of a jealous husband?

      M. DE SALLUS

      God forbid! I have too much confidence in you, and far too much esteem for you, to reproach you with anything, for I know that you have too much tact ever to give rise to calumny or scandal.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Do not play with words. You think that M. Jacques de Randol comes too often to this house—to your house?

      M. DE SALLUS

      I do not find any fault with you for that.

      MME. DE SALLUS

      Thank you. You simply have not the right. However, since you adopt this attitude, let us settle this question once for all, for I loathe misunderstandings. It seems to me that you have an exceedingly short memory. Let me come to your aid. Be frank with me. Through some occurrence, the nature of which I do not know, your attitude is different today from that of the past two years. Cast your memory over the past, to the time when you began to neglect me in a manner that was plain to all. I became very uneasy. Then I knew—I was told, and I saw—that you were in love with Madame de Servières. I told you how hurt I was, how grieved I was. What did you reply? Just what every man replies when he no longer loves the woman who reproaches him. You shrugged your shoulders, smiled impatiently, told me I was mad, and then expounded to me—I must admit, in a most skillful manner—those grand principles of freedom in love that are adopted by every husband who deceives his wife and thinks she will not deceive him. You gave me to understand that marriage is not a bond, but simply an association of mutual interests, a social rather than a moral alliance; that it does not demand friendship or affection