I'm
afraid of the future, too. Or rather, no. It's the present which
frightens me, sir! For the future, I'll answer for it. And it will
conform to the vows of my finally reawakened conscience.
PELTIER (who has a mounting rage within him and feels himself provoked
to the last degree)
Explain yourself? Are you joking or not? I want to understand you.
MARIE
Sir, you have no right to speak to me like this!
(Peltier advances like a man who has the right his interlocutor is
speaking of or believes he's going to have it.)
MARIE
And I will never give it to you.
PELTIER
Madame.
MARIE
Do you hear, sir?
(The two stiffen and look each other in the face. A silence.)
PELTIER
Then why did you come with me of your own free will, or even on your
own initiative?
MARIE (who's settled down)
What do you want? I've changed my mind.
PELTIER (very cold and speaking through his teeth)
Fine. You've tricked me! At this point I'm not a young man. No one
makes a fool of me! For, my darling, I don't think that a caprice of
yours, such a sudden turnabout, such a flash of virtue--
MARIE
Don't use that word virtue any more. It is terrible to my ears. I was
telling you just now that I've something like fear of the present.
Yes, fear to remain here this way.
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