The World's Greatest Books [Volumes 1-15, 17-20]

Horace: Cruel fortune has brought back from the country my fair one's guardian, and further, to my great regret, he has learned of the secret intercourse between us. So, when I was going to pay my usual visit, the maid and valet stopped my entry, and slammed the door in my face; while Agnes, from the window, sent me off in a very angry voice, and threw a stone at me.

Arnolphe: I am afraid you are in a bad way, but you will find means to set matters right.

Horace: I must try by some scheme to defeat that jealous fellow's unsleeping vigilance.

Arnolphe: You ought to find that easy; and, after all, the girl loves you.

Horace : Certainly.

Arnolphe : The stone put you to flight; but it ought not to have surprised you.

Horace: Of course. I understood at once that my rival was there, conducting the whole affair without being seen. But what surprised me, and what will surprise you, is another incident of which you shall hear, a bold stroke which that young beauty made, and which one would not have expected from a girl of her simplicity. It must be confessed that love is a great teacher: it teaches us to be what we never were before; and by its lessons a complete change in our manners is often the work of a moment. It conquers obstacles in our very nature, and its sudden effects have the appearance of mira

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cles. A miracle is very evident in Agnes for dismissing me in these definite terms: " Go away; I know all you have got to say, and there is my reply." This stone fell at my feet with a letter attached. Does not love know the art of sharpening wits? Don't you find it amusing to watch the part my jealous rival is playing throughout this game? You don't laugh enough at it, to my thinking.

Arnolphe (with a forced laugh) : Pardon me, I am laughing as heartily as I can.

Horace : As to her letter, her hand has put on paper all that her heart dictated, and in terms so moving and full of good feeling, so innocently tender and ingenuous, as to represent in short all that an unspoiled nature would feel on receiving love's first wound.

Arnolphe : Good-bye.

Horace: Why such haste?

Arnolphe: I have just remembered some pressing business.

Horace : But don't you know anyone who could gain access to that house? Cannot you devise some means of helping me?

Arnolphe: No, really; you will find a way without me.

Horace : Good-bye, then. You see how I trust you.

[Exit.

Arnolphe: I have to hide my feelings before him. And what pain it is to conceal my bitter grief! That wretched letter will be the death of me. I see that the traitor has stolen away her affections. The despair of it all!

Act III

Scene I.—Arnolphe, having been told by Horace that he means to climb at night to Agnes's chamber, has bidden his servants lie in wait to club the intruder. Judging, however, from their subsequent accounts

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of the incident that Horace has been beaten to death, he is considerably worried until he meets his young rival, who, after informing him that the servants' blozvs had merely caused him to miss his footing on the ladder and to fall to the ground, and that as he lay there Agnes ran up and offered to elope with him, confides that young lady, all unsuspectingly, to Arnolphe's temporary protection.

[Enter Arnolphe and Agnes.

Arnolphe (his face hidden in his cloak) : Come, I am not thinking of lodging you here. I mean to put you in a safe place. Do you know me ?

Agnes (recognising him): Ah!

Arnolphe: You minx, my face frightens you now. (Agnes looks to see if she can any longer see Horace) Don't look to your lover for aid; he is too far away to assist you now. Ah, you wretch, to think of such perfidy ! After all my kindness to you, to form such a design!

Agnes: Why do you scold me?

Arnolphe: Is it not an infamous action to go off with a lover?

Agnes: But he told me he wanted to make me his wife.

Arnolphe: But / intended to take you for my wife.

Agnes: But, to tell you frankly, he is more to my taste as a husband than you are.

Arnolphe: That is because you love him, you traitress !

Agnes : Yes, I love him.

Arnolphe: You should have dismissed such an amorous desire.

Agnes : How can one dismiss what gives pleasure ?

Arnolphe : Did you not know that it would displease me?

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Agnes: I? Not at all. What harm can it do you?

Arnolphe: Why don't you love me, Madame Impudence ?

Agnes : Good heavens! You ought not to blame me. Why did you not make love as he did?

Arnolphe: I have done everything in my power; but the pains I have taken are all lost.

Agnes: Really, then he knows more about it than you do; for it did not bother him to make love.