The Princess of Bagdad: A Play In Three Acts. Dumas Alexandre

Marnepont?

Nourvady

      Ah, well! In making the movement occasioned by the pain, this shoulder was for the moment higher than that. (He raises the right arm a little.) "Ah, said my opponent, laughing, I made a mistake, it is the right which is highest." It was not bad – for him, but it was bad taste. Then I fired. It was the first time that poor fellow showed any wit; he wasn't used to it; it killed him.

Godler (quite low to Trévelé)

      He wants to rise in the estimation of our hostess; he is a clever fellow.

Lionnette (looking at Nourvady, who is going towards Godler and Trévelé, one sitting and the other standing at the other side of the room)

      He is peculiar, that man.

John

      Do you find him odd?

Lionnette

      Yes, he is so unlike any one else.

John

      Indeed?

Lionnette

      What is the matter with you? What are you thinking about?

John

      I am thinking that that odd man is very happy.

Lionnette

      In having the left shoulder higher than the right, and a ball in the latter?

John

      In having what I have not, in having forty millions.

Lionnette

      Ah, yes, that would help us out of our difficulties.

John

      My poor Lionnette, I am very unhappy.

Lionnette

      Why?

John

      Because I am not able to give you any longer what I formerly gave you.

Lionnette

      I shall do very well without it.

John

      You are incapable of it; you said it yourself just now.

Lionnette

      There are moments when I no longer know what I say; you must not pay attention to it. Chance has done much for me in my life; it may still find a way.

John

      And if chance gets tired, and if you also get as tired? I shall never say – "if you love me no more;" in your heart you have never loved me.

Lionnette

      Why did I marry you, then?

John

      Because your mother advised you to do it.

Lionnette

      It is perhaps the only good advice she ever gave me, and I assure you I have been very grateful for what you have done for me.

John

      Gratitude is not love.

Lionnette

      Love comes afterwards.

John

      A long time afterwards, for it has not come yet.

Lionnette

      The most beautiful creature in the world could not give more than she has. I have given all I had to give. Is it love? Is it not love? I know not. I have no line of comparison, never having given to any one but you.

      (She hesitates a moment before continuing.)

John

      You were going to say something else.

Lionnette

      No.

John

      Yes. Say it, whatever it was.

      (He draws Lionnette by the hand, close to him.)

Godler

      There are the plots beginning again. An odd kind of a house this.

      (The three persons go out on the terrace, and from there into the garden, where one sees no more of them.)

Lionnette

      I was going to say that perhaps you find that I do not love you enough, because you love me too much. Then you have been much too good to me; you have done whatever I wished; you did wrong. You should have been more my master, in order to counterbalance the bad influence of my mother, to change my habits, to offer more resistance, and to save me from myself.

John

      To save you? What have you done then?

Lionnette

      I have ruined you.

John

      That is all.

Lionnette

      It is quite enough.

John

      You have never thought of…

Lionnette

      Of what?

John

      Of another?