Etext by Dagny
Etext by Dagny
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Characters:
Florine
Duke
Chevalier
Mr. de Vandore
Commander
Marquis
Celinda
Rosimene
St. Albin
Suzon
Florine
My dear lords, I can only repeat to you what I've already said. My
mistress is not here.
Duke
That is the utmost falsity. I saw her leaning out of her window.
Chevalier
I will only believe she's not here if she comes to tell us so
herself.
Duke
Does she take us for creditors or men or letters, who come to offer
their dedications?
De Vandore
We are not jokers or scoundrels. Those appellations are not our
concern. Gentlemen, you don't know the correct way of questioning
serving girls. (pulling out his purse) Now, Florine, be frank, is your
mistress home?
Florine
Yes, sir.
De Vandore
I knew quite well I'd get her to speak.
Chevalier
How cruel to conceal herself from friends like us who have never
missed one of her suppers. What ingratitude!
De Vandore
Have us in, little one.
Florine
Your eloquence is, indeed, persuasive, sir. But I find myself, much
to my regret, forced to keep your purse without opening the door to
you.
De Vandore
For God's sake, Florine. You are worse than Cerberus. You take the
gift, but you don't allow anyone to pass!
Florine
I know my duty.
Duke
Since this is the way things stand, I've decided to lay siege to
the house. I am going to dig a tunnel under the gate or tunnel a mine
right into Celinda's alcove. I know where she is, thank God.
Florine
The Duke is a terrible man.
De Vandore (aside)
I really want to return to pay court to Rosimene. It's true, she's
received me very coldly. To be pushed out or not to be admitted—the
chance being equal—I'll stay. My God, in a century of conception, it's
difficult to have an affair of the heart.
Chevalier
Come on, Florine. Don't be strict with us. It's not like you to be
cruel.
Florine
You like to have things repeated. My mistress is here, it's true.
But it is as if she weren't. Madame does not wish to receive anyone.
Neither today, nor tomorrow, nor the day after. She's determined. From
now on, we shall live far from the noise of the world in an
inaccessible solitude.
Duke
We'll put things straight. We don't wish to spend our lives dying
of boredom. We will pursue Celinda until the end of her Odyssey. What
the devil! After having shown her friends such a pretty face, full of
lilies and roses, one cannot make them kiss a face of oak studded with
steel nails.
Commander
Celinda, the pearl of our suppers. Celinda, who so cheerfully wet
her pretty, rosy lips in the foam of champagne less sparkling than she.
Marquis
Celinda, who sang so well, verses over dessert which amused us so
much! Celinda, this smile of our joy, this star of our mad nights.
Chevalier
She's retiring from the world.
Duke
She, a hermit—and virtuous!
Chevalier
It's ignoble.
Duke
It's monstrous.
De Vandore
What will you do, shut up like that? How will you pass the time?
Florine
We will read The Social Contract and we will study philosophy.
Commander
I will wager your philosophy has mustaches and spurs.
Marquis
Celinda is in love with a negro or a poet—at the least.
Duke
What an example of her type.
Chevalier
Bah! Celinda is a girl who has sentiments and who only likes good
things. It's a caprice which cannot last.
Commander
What will we do to ruin ourselves?
Marquis
She had an inventive fantasy to dry up, in a year, the richest vein
of mines in Peru. We must now find a way of spending our money
ourselves. Her absence will be cruelly felt. You won't believe me,
because it is so ridiculous, but is' more than fifteen years since I
have—I don't know what to do with my money. Hey, Duke, do you want me
to loan you a thousand pounds?
Duke
Thanks, I am gambling from noon to midnight to save myself from a
pecuniary congestion.
Marquis
We must be careful. The situation is grave. See rather this great
financier, he's stuffed with pounds, doubloons up to his blazoned
throat, contending with all the troubles of the world. He'll explode
one of these days. He'll die of melted gold.
Duke
Only Celinda can prevent such misfortunes.
Chevalier
What shall we do with ourselves today?
Duke
Faith, I don't know, my boy. I had set myself on the idea of
spending the evening with Celinda. Devil if I can think of an
alternative.
Commander
By God, let's stay. If Celinda doesn't want to be here, it's not
our fault. We are almost at home here, anyway.
Duke
I gave her the house.
Commander
I bought the furniture.
Marquis
I, the livery and the carriages.
Chevalier
We're here in a hotel—furnished.
All
By us.
Commander
Let's stay.
Chevalier
Here are cards. Let's play whist.
Florine
What are you thinking of, gentlemen? You are forgetting you are not
at home.
Duke
On, the contrary, my sweet, we are remembering. What's the stake,
Chevalier?
Chevalier
A gold crown, to begin.
Florine
Gentlemen, please.
Chevalier
If you say one more word, Florine, we'll make you kiss Mr. de
Vandore, who is at his absolute ugliest today.
Florine
I give up. I'm going to tell my mistress what is happening.
Duke
It would really be a crime to allow a pretty thing like Celinda to
adopt the customs of savages and goths—let's keep her, despite
herself, on the right path—and not permit her to deviate from the
traditions of an elegant lifestyle.
Chevalier
Here she is herself, our obstinacy had its effect.
(Enter Celinda.)
Duke
Well, beautiful, here you are again. Here you see a Duke, a
Marquis, a Commander, a Chevalier, and even a financier who are dying
in your absence. Where does this savage cruelty come from that renders
you insensible to the sighs of such adorers? This poor Chevalier has
lost what little sense he had. He neglects himself and doesn't curl his
hair more than three times a day—and wears the same watch for a week.
He's a lost man.
Celinda
Sir, stop your joking. I am not in the mood to endure it. And, tell
me why you remain in my house by force and against my orders? Is it
because I am a dancer and you are a Duke?
Duke
My despair has made me impolite. Having no other way, I took it.
Chevalier
You are lacking in respect to all Paris.
Commander
The universe is very embarrassed in its person and doesn't know
what to do.
Duke
If you knew how stupid de Vandore has become since he no longer
sees you.
Celinda
You absolutely want me to leave. This obstinacy is strange. To want
to visit people despite themselves!
Commander
Bad girl! Can anyone live without you?
Celinda
I assure you that I have not the least wish to see you and that I
will never break down your door. Please leave, it's the only pleasure
you could give me.
De Vandore (aside)
Oh, the little demon! Decidedly, I won't speak to her of my
Florine, and I'll keep for a better time this little song I wrote on
the back of a fifty thousand pound bank draft which I brought specially
in my pocket. I think, really, that Rosimene is still in a mood less
harsh. I feel I don't know what desire to return there.
Chevalier
This is unfriendly. To treat us this way, your best friends.
Celinda
You are not my friends, I hope, although you fill my house.
Henceforth, my days shall be in a retreat. I never want to see anyone
again.
Duke
“Anyone,” right? But, I'm someone.
Celinda
Let me live the way I fancy. Forget me. That won't be difficult for
you. Enough others will replace me. You have Dupline, Fausena,
Lendameny, the whole of the opera, the comedy. They will receive you
with open arms. I've amused you enough. I've sung enough, danced
enough, at your parties and suppers. What do you want from me? You've
had my gaiety, my smile, my beauty, my talent. Can I take them away
from you? You knew how to pay for all this with handfuls of gold. What
does it matter to me how bored you are? Besides, I wouldn't amuse you
any more. My character has totally changed. I've felt the emptiness of
this brilliant frivolity. From having known others too much, the taste
for simple pleasures has come to me. I want to reflect and think.
That's enough to tell you there can no longer be anything in common
between us.
Chevalier
Is it Celinda who's talking this way?
Celinda
Yes, me! What's so surprising in that? It no longer pleases me to
laugh. I don't laugh. I no longer wish to see anyone. I shut my door.
That's all.
Commander
What a singular caprice—to extinguish at the moment of its
greatest luster, one of the most luminous stars in the heaven of the
Opera.
Celinda
Nothing could be simpler. I diverted you and you did not divert me.
Do you think, Duke, that it is so agreeable to see the Marquis for an
entire evening slouching in an armchair, dangling his legs, pulling a
little mirror from his pocket, and making the cutest faces at himself.
Duke
Indeed, it's not very gay.
Celinda
And you, Chevalier, do you find the Duke, who only speaks of his
hounds, his horses and his carriages, and who is in love with
everything regarding the stable, a very entertaining person? That would
drive an English groom to despair.
Chevalier
It's true that conversation is not the Duke's forte.
Celinda
Commander, you are but the shadow of yourself. Your principal merit
consists in being a great eater and a great drinker. You're not a man,
you're a stomach. You've become a turkey, and only six bottles trouble
your head. You go to sleep after dinner. Well, sleep at home.
De Vandore
How appearances are deceiving. I, who thought her so sweet and
charming.
Celinda
As for Mr. de Vandore, he's a sack of money with clothes and lace.
Let him hide it in a strong box. That's his plan.
All
Well said, well said. She always had a devilish wit.
Duke
You don't wish to come to Marly?
Celinda
No.
Chevalier
At the musical concert being given where one hears this famous
foreign singer—
Celinda
No, I tell you.
Commander
I've just received from Perigord certain truffles which are not
bad, washed down with a little wine. I have, in a corner of my wine
cellar known to me alone— Come, sup with us.
Celinda
No, no, a thousand times no. I no longer wish to live with
strawberries and cream. All your poisoned dishes don't tempt me.
Commander
Poisoned dishes! Truffles of the first choice! Don't repeat what
you just said or you will lose your reputation. For you to hold such
strange opinions, something strange must have happened to your wits.
You've been reading bad books, or you are amorous—which is in bad
taste and good only for dressmakers.
Celinda
They won't go! If they should meet St. Albin!
Duke
You are burning with an impure love for someone of questionable
birth that you dare not produce. A shop boy, a soldier, a newspaper
man. Take care, Celinda, you cannot descend below a Baron. You must be
a Duchess or a Queen to permit yourself the caprice of a lackey or a
poet—without there being evil consequences. All that I say to you is
in your interest. Gentlemen, since Celinda is so inhospitable today,
come spend the evening with me. We will drink. And for desert,
Lindamuso and Rosimene will dance on the table to the accompaniment of
broken glasses. Madame, I cast my regrets at your feet.
De Vandore
I still want to slip my stanzas to her—
(Exeunt all except Celinda.)
Celinda
Gone at last! That was difficult. They were used to being more at
home here than in their own homes. Ah, my dear Marquis, how I hate you
with all my soul. They were born insolent. Why didn't I notice it until
today? They were always this way. I alone have changed. Celinda—
Celinda is no more. A new woman has been born in me. Since I read
Rousseau, my eyes have opened. I've never loved. I'd never met St.
Albin. That young man with an honest soul, with an enthusiastic heart,
who declaims so eloquently in my boudoir, of the conception of cities,
and the innocence of rural life. If these imbeciles had known how I
adore a young preceptor named, quite simply, St. Albin, who doesn't
even powder his hair—there would be so many taunts, so many jibes.
But, time presses. Tonight, I must break these bonds. I've written the
management breaking my engagement. Let's return these presents, the
rewards of guilty weaknesses. (ringing) Florine, take this bracelet
back to the Duke and this choker to the Chevalier.
(St. Albin enters.)
Celinda
Finally! I thought you weren't coming.
St. Albin
I'm early.
Celinda
My heart is always ahead of time. No one saw you?
St. Albin
No one. The street was deserted.
Celinda
It's not that I blush over you—even were you a Duke or slave
trader— but I fear for my happiness. Our great dull Lords would never
pardon me for being happy.
St. Albin
Are you still surrounded by their obsessions?
Celinda
Still! But, I've taken my leave. For you, I abandon glory, the
stage, fortune. I am leaving the theatre.
St. Albin
You are renouncing the Opera.
Celinda
It bores me to live in clouds and mythological glories. I abdicate.
From goddess, I've become a woman again. I will only be beautiful for
you, sir.
St. Albin
How can I show gratitude for such an act of love?
Celinda
Rehearsals will no longer disturb our meetings. We will have
forever to love each other.
St. Albin
Yes, my all-beautiful. Twenty-four hours a day is not enough.
Celinda
We will live in the country, all by ourselves in a little cottage.
We will realize Rousseau's ideal. We'll have cows that I will milk
myself.
St. Albin
It will be charming. You've understood me. The pastoral life has
always been my dream.
Celinda
Sundays, we'll dance with the villagers. I'll wear a simple ribbon
in my hair.
St. Albin
But, you mustn't forget yourself and execute a pirouette or do a
bump and grind.
Celinda
Have no fear. I will quickly forget the graceful footwork. I was
born to be a shepherdess.
St. Albin
To feel the earth, to watch the flocks. That's the true destiny of
man. Paris, city of mud and smoke, I shall leave you forever.
Celinda
Let us flee far from a corrupt society.
St. Albin
I've already had some clothes made. The village tailors are so
clumsy. But, who cares about the cut of one's suit? Virtue alone makes
a man happy.
Celinda
Virtue, accompanied by a little love. Come, darling, my carriage is
waiting.
St. Albin
I have to write the family whose children I am raising after
Rousseau's methods of an imperious necessity which forces me to
renounce these philosophic duties.
Celinda
Perhaps, in our retreat you will have the opportunity to exercise
your talents. Ah, I will not be an unnatural mother. Our child will not
suck mercenary milk.
(They leave.)
BLACKOUT
A month later. A hermitage near Montmorency.
St. Albin
How will you dress to go to this country feast? There will be some
city women there. Will you wear your diamonds?
Celinda
The flowers of the field will be my diamonds. I don't want those
gorgeous ornaments which make me remember what I ought to forget. I've
sent back the jewels to those who gave them to me.
St. Albin
Sublime! (aside) It's a shame. I loved the blue lights that the
stones gave off in the candlelight. (aloud) And your lace?
Celinda
Sold. I gave the money to the poor. They'd be torn to pieces by the
thorns of bushes and roses.
St. Albin
Lace is really nice at the end of a dress.
Celinda
Shall I drag my skirt in prairie dust? A dress of English cotton,
streaked with red, a straw hat. That will be my outfit.
St. Albin
You must put on a little rouge. You are pale.
Celinda
The crystal water of the springs will suffice to revive color in my
cheeks.
St. Albin
I am still of the opinion that a touch of rouge under the eye
lights up your face, and a bit of lipstick. Are you bringing your
perfume? The villagers sometimes have a strong odor.
Celinda
Violets on my breast will be my only perfume.
St. Albin
I appreciate the violets, but perfume has its charm.
Celinda
A perfidious charm which intoxicates and disturbs. Nature disdains
all such vain refinements.
St. Albin
Come as you like. You will always be pretty. (taking his hat)
Celinda
Are you going out again?
St. Albin
I haven't put a foot outside for ages.
Celinda
You were gone all day yesterday.
St. Albin
Was it yesterday I went to Paris? It seems so long ago.
Celinda
What you said was not very gallant.
St. Albin
You really have a bad disposition. I spoke without thinking.
Goodbye. I am going for a walk and, in the depths of the forest, I'll
meditate the true way of making people happy.
(Exit St. Albin. Enter Florine.)
Florine
Oh, that wicked beast of a cow! She ran right off with my bonnet
and knocked over a pail of milk in the stable. We won't have any cream
to make cheese and we'll have to go two leagues to get some elsewhere.
Long live Paris, where you can get what you want.
Celinda (dreaming)
The Opera must be playing today.
Florine
Yes. And Rosimene is dancing your dances.
Celinda
Rosimene—dancing my dances. A creature like that. Only good enough
to play in the chorus.
Florine
She's intrigued a lot. Now she's the lead dancer.
Celinda
Who told you that? It's impossible.
Florine
You know that young painter who likes me. I met him the other day
and he persuaded me to pose for him—as a wood nymph. While I was
posing, he told me all the scandals of the green room.
Celinda
But she's all superficiality. She's stolen two balusters from some
balcony to make her legs.
Florine
De Vandore has done mad things for her. He gave her a hotel in the
suburbs. And magnificent plate, and the other day, she was in a
carriage with four horses and an enormous coachman and three gigantic
lackeys running behind. A train for a Princess of the blood.
Celinda
She's a horror. She's a bit of flesh held together with hooks and
eyes.
Florine
When I think that madame, who is so well made, has buried herself
completely in a frightful desert for love of a small young man,
handsome enough it is true, but without the least stability.
Celinda (frightened)
Florine, Florine, look.
Florine
What's wrong?
Celinda
A toad has come in through the open door and comes skipping over
the floor.
Florine
The frightful beast! With his big popping eyes, he frightfully
resembles Mr. de Vandore.
Celinda
I am going to faint. Florine, don't abandon me in this extreme
peril.
Florine
Where are the tongs? I can catch him by a paw and throw him
delicately over the wall.
Celinda
Take care he doesn't hurl his venom in your face.
Florine
Fear nothing. I am brave. Soon we'll be rid of this importunate
visitor.
Celinda
I breathe. The description of hermitages by authors do not speak of
toads who want to slide into your privacy.
Florine
I always told you, madame, that authors are imbeciles. The country
is made for peasants, and not for persons well brought up.
Celinda
Good God! A wasp is buzzing against the window. If it were to sting
me!
Florine
With two or three passes with my handkerchief, I am going to try to
make him fall to the ground. We'll crush him then.
(Florine kills the wasp.)
Celinda
What perils and what needles. It's frightful to be pursued this way
by evil animals. Yesterday, I found an enormous spider in my curtains.
Florine
The country has to be populated by animals, since people,
necessarily, are in the city.
Celinda
It seems to me that my flesh burns. I'm afraid of being struck by a
beam of sunlight if I water the flowers in the garden without a hat.
Florine
Madame's skin is always of an admirable whiteness.
Celinda
You think so?
Florine
It's not like that Rosimene's, with her red tint and her yellow
neck. I'd like to have the money she spends on makeup and powder.
Celinda
I hear Suzon's wooden shoes. She's in a hurry. Something
extraordinary must have happened.
(Enter Suzon.)
Suzon
Madame, excuse my entrance like this, without a word of warning,
into your beautiful room, as if in a pigsty. There's a handsome
gentleman who wishes to speak to you.
Florine
Show in the handsome gentleman.
Celinda
No! No!
Florine
It will amuse us. I'll be so happy to see a human face.
(Enter the Duke.)
Celinda
Heavens! The Duke!
Florine
Milord! What? Is it you?
Duke
Myself, charming savage. I've found you again. It's been three
weeks that my secret agents have canvassed the country to ferret you
out.
Florine
The fact is—we are at the end of the world.
Duke
You must hate me a lot, naughty girl, for you to expatriate
yourself so as not to see me. By the way, here's the diamond you sent
me back as if I were a tradesman. A person of quality never takes back
what's he has given.
Celinda
Sir!
Florine
Only men of birth behave like that!
Duke
You have a caprice for this little dandy. It's not worth the bother
to flee people for that. A man of wit understands everything. I would
have arranged things so as not to meet St. Albin, or rather—better to
present him to me and I would have sponsored him, if he had some merit.
A pretty woman is allowed to have a philosopher as she is allowed to
have a poodle. It doesn't make much difference.
Celinda
St. Albin knew how to inspire me with love of virtue.
Duke
Him! I shouldn't speak ill of him, for I'd have the air of a
dismissed rival, but this dear gentleman is not what he appears to
be—or, as they say in the novels, I am much deceived.
Florine
I am of the Duke's opinion. Mr. St. Albin has attractions which are
not becoming to a patriarchal and rustic man.
Celinda
Florine—
Duke
My dear Celinda, I love you more than you could suspect from my
light tone and frivolous manners. I've never spoken to you in high
flown phrases, yet I've made sacrifices for you which many a romantic
and pompous lover would hesitate to perform—not to mention two or
three little duels—so you could crush all your rivals. So that your
feminine vanity would not suffer, I've mortgaged my ancestral estates,
and your divine beauty has expanded splendidly amidst marvels of luxury
and art. This sell-off has made you shine double. And while only
speaking of dogs and horses, I've rejoiced in having rectified all the
injustice of fate that made you only a queen of the Opera—when you
should have been born on a throne.
Florine
How the Duke expresses himself—with no debt to fashionable books.
I don't like lovers who give their lives for their mistress and who
refuse her fifty crowns or leave her for some dull wife.
Celinda
Dear Duke, oh, if I had known. Alas, it is too late. St. Albin
adores me. I must end my days in this retreat, far from the noise of
the world, far from success.
Duke
To renounce your art and glory, for a scribbler who deceives
you—I'm sure of it. To let that flabby Rosimene make the boards creak
where you so lightly danced—it's unpardonable. The public has such bad
taste, it is capable of applauding her.
Celinda
The crowd often takes indecency for sensuality and simpering for
grace.
Duke
You have only to reappear to send her back to the chorus—which she
should never have left.
Celinda
Why speak of that, since my fate is forever fixed?
Duke
Those are very solemn words.
Suzon (entering with a letter in her hand)
Madame, here's a letter which a boy gave me for you.
Celinda
It's St. Albin's writing. What can it mean? He just left. What can
he have to tell me? I tremble. Break the seal. Duke, you'll excuse me?
Duke
Why, of course.
Celinda (reading)
My dear Celinda, What I have to tell you is so embarrassing that
I've taken the means of informing you by letter. You may call me
perfidious, but I was only unwise. Destiny does not want me to be happy
according to my heart's vows. A man simple and virtuous, I was born to
be happy in the country—but an unforeseeable event has recalled me to
the city. You know I was a tutor. My pupil had a sister who often heard
my lessons. What can I tell you? Julie, for that is her name, scorning
vile prejudices, soon gave in to the sweet seductions of nature—and
finds herself in the position of giving a new citizen to the
fatherland. Her parents, noticing their daughter's condition, summon me
to repair the outrage to her honor. I've been forced to agree to marry
her—and they insist on bestowing a dowry on her of one hundred
thousand crowns. This is very annoying to me, for I've always professed
to scorn riches and ask only for pure milk under a thatched roof, isn't
it? Don't wish me ill, Celinda. An imperious destiny compels me. Try to
forget me—nothing prevents you from remaining where you are amidst
simple pleasures and days exempt from troubles. Goodbye forever, The
Unfortunate St. Albin.
Celinda
The rogue! How he deceived me! oh, I am choking from anger and
misery!
Duke
This doesn't surprise me. Romantic men are always committing
follies with rich heiresses.
Florine
He's a scoundrel, a libertine, a hypocrite. I've never told madame,
but he always hugged me in the dark corridors, and if I'd wanted to—
Happily, I have some principles.
Celinda
And I was capable of preferring him to you.
Duke
So much the worse for him if he hasn't resembled your dream.
Florine
Now we no longer have any reason to stay in the country—if we were
to return a little to see what the conditions of the land are in
Paris—
Celinda
Goodbye—daisies, aromas of green hay, smoke from distant burning
leaves—my heart has known pleasures too stimulating to be able to
endure your sweet, monotonous chorus.
Duke
Your bucolic interlude is terminated?
Celinda
Yes. Give my your hand and escort me.
Duke
My carriage is exactly at the turn of the road.
Florine
Yea! For a working girl, it's better to have love letters than to
milk cows.
(They leave.)
BLACKOUT
The foyer of the Opera.
Rosimene
This imbecile didn't put water in my watering jug. I nearly fell
down flopping. My place was clear and shining like a waxed floor.
De Vandore
I'll beat the clown when he comes back.
Chevalier
Miss Rosimene is taken with exquisite taste.
Rosimene
My shirt costs a thousand crowns. Mr. de Vandore has done wonders.
Commander
We are going to dine with you after the ballet. This morning I sent
a hamper of game and the recipe for quail.
Rosimene
Oh, I adore quail.
Chevalier (aside)
She adores everything.
Rosimene
I am not a prude like Celinda. I eat and I drink. It's more gay.
Commander
By the way, what's become of Celinda?
De Vandore
She's given herself up to the pleasures of the country and foments
cream in a Swiss dairy farm.
Commander
Bad nutrition which ruins the stomach. It's bad enough to suck milk
when you're a little kid.
Rosimene
I prefer tonics and highly seasoned dishes. After all, Celinda has
always had romantic ideas. She had the defect of reading. I ask you,
what's the good of that?
Chevalier
Rosimene, tonight you have such gusto—such pungency, it's
incredible how you've improved.
Rosimene
I owe it to my big old Croesus. He pays me for masters of all
sorts. I don't receive them, but I give them their wages. It's as if
I've taken my lesson.
De Vandore
She'll become a Ninon, a Marion Delorme, an Asposia. We'll make the
necessary expenses.
Call boy
Madame, they're going to start.
Rosimene
Good! Good! The public can wait a bit. I have to get ready. I
haven't washed today.
(Celinda and the Duke enter.)
Celinda
My dear little one, don't get so heated up. Your corsage is
decidedly soiled with sweat.
All
Celinda!
Celinda
You are not dancing tonight. I'm taking my role back.
Rosimene
That's unworthy, that's horrible. I have rights which I will stand
on —and my costume which cost me my eyeballs.
Celinda
That's Mr. de Vandore's concern.
Chevalier (going to Celinda)
Is it to your ghost I speak, Celinda? In any case, no one has ever
seen a more graceful shade.
Celinda
It's indeed me, Chevalier. Commander, I invite you for tonight. We
will party like crazy until morning. I will try not to put you to
sleep.
Commander (leaving Rosimene)
I will be more awake than a bird of dawning.
Celinda
Marquis, I have to excuse my wrongs. Before, I slandered your wit
and your legs. Come, I will be charming.
Marquis (going to Celinda's side)
A smile from your mouth makes one forget stinging words.
Celinda (aside)
Shall I take her de Vandore from her? No, he's too ugly and too
stupid. Let's leave him to her. Clemency sits well on grand souls.
Call boy
Madame, it's your turn.
Celinda
Goodbye, gentlemen. Till later. Duke, come get me after my dance.
You will escort me home.
Chevalier
I told you that this mawkishness wouldn't last. Good blood cannot
lie.
CURTAIN