HENRIETTE. [_Re-entering as_ ALBERT _a.s.sumes a rather severe att.i.tude_.]
How are you? [_Pause._] Have you seen Jacques?
ALBERT. [_With a determined air._] No, Henriette. Thank G.o.d!
HENRIETTE. Why?
ALBERT. Because it pains me to see men in your presence whom you care nothing for.
HENRIETTE. [_Delighted._] You don"t like that?
[_Sitting down on sofa._
ALBERT. No, I don"t. And I"d like to tell you----
HENRIETTE. About my relations with Jacques?
ALBERT. Oh, he"s not the only one.
HENRIETTE. Heaps of others, I suppose?
ALBERT. [_Sits on chair near sofa._] You suppose correctly; heaps.
HENRIETTE. Really?
ALBERT. You are a coquette.
HENRIETTE. You think so?
ALBERT. I am positive.
HENRIETTE. I suppose I displease you in other ways, too?
ALBERT. In a great many other ways.
HENRIETTE. [_Really delighted._] How confidently you say that!
ALBERT. So much the worse if you don"t like it!
HENRIETTE. Quite the contrary, my dear Albert; you can"t imagine how you please me when you talk like that. It"s perfectly adorable.
ALBERT. It makes very little difference to me whether I please you or not. I speak according to my temperament. Perhaps it is a bit authoritative, but I can"t help _that_.
HENRIETTE. You are superb.
ALBERT. Oh, no. I"m just myself.
HENRIETTE. Oh, if you were only the----
ALBERT. I haven"t the slightest idea what you were about to say, but I"ll guarantee that there"s not a more inflexible temper than mine in Paris.
HENRIETTE. I can easily believe it. [_Pause._] Now tell me in what way you think I"m coquettish.
[_Sitting on edge of sofa in an interested att.i.tude._ ALBERT _takes out cigarette, lights and smokes it_.
ALBERT. That"s easy; for instance, when you go to the theatre, to a reception, to the races. As soon as you arrive the men flock about in dozens; those who don"t know you come to be introduced. You"re the talking-stock of society. Now I should be greatly obliged if you would tell me to what you attribute this notoriety?
HENRIETTE. [_Modestly._] Well, I should attribute it to the fact that I am--agreeable, and pleasant----
ALBERT. There are many women no less so.
HENRIETTE. [_Summoning up all her modesty to reply._] You force me to recognize the fact----
ALBERT. And I know many women fully as pleasant as you who don"t flaunt their favors in the face of everybody; _they_ preserve some semblance of dignity, a certain air of aloof distinction that it would do you no harm to acquire.
HENRIETTE. [_With a grat.i.tude that is conscious of its bounds._] Thanks, thanks so much. [_Drawing back to a corner of the sofa._] I am deeply obliged to you----
ALBERT. Not at all.
HENRIETTE. In the future I shall try to behave more decorously.
ALBERT. Another thing----
HENRIETTE. [_The first signs of impatience begin to appear._] What?
Another thing to criticise?
ALBERT. A thousand! [_Settling himself comfortably._
HENRIETTE. Well, hurry up.
ALBERT. You must rid yourself of your excessive and ridiculous school-girl sentimentality.
HENRIETTE. I wonder just on what you base your statement. Would you oblige me so far as to explain that?
ALBERT. With pleasure. I remember one day in the country you were in tears because a _poor_ little mouse had fallen into the claws of a _wretched_ cat; two minutes later you were sobbing because the _poor_ cat choked in swallowing the _wretched_ little mouse.
HENRIETTE. That was only my kindness to dumb animals. Is it wrong to be kind to dumb animals?
[_She is about to rise when_ ALBERT _stops her with a gesture_.
ALBERT. That would be of no consequence, if it weren"t that you were of so contradictory a nature that you engage in the emptiest, most frivolous conversations, the most----
HENRIETTE. [_Slightly disdainful._] Ah, you are going too far! You make me doubt your power of a.n.a.lysis. I am interested only in n.o.ble and high things----
ALBERT. And yet as soon as the conversation takes a serious turn, it"s appalling to see you; you yawn and look bored to extinction.
HENRIETTE. There you are right--partly.
ALBERT. You see!