s anything else that I can offer besides
myself--this world and heaven!

Gertrude
Let me tell you, then, that all that you have wished to do, I have
done! It is enough therefore to assure you that nothing, not even
death itself, can arrest my course.

Pauline
In saying this, you give me the right to defend myself before my
father. (Aside) O Ferdinand! Our love, (Gertrude takes a seat on the
sofa during the soliloquy of Pauline) as she has said, is greater than
life. (To Gertrude) Madame, you must repair all the evil that you have
done to me; the sole difficulties which lie in the way of my marriage
with Ferdinand, you must overcome. Yes, you who have complete control
over my father, you must make him forego his hatred of the son of
General Marcandal.

Gertrude
And do you really mean that?

Pauline
Yes, madame.

Gertrude
And what means do you possess formidable enough to compel me to do so?

Pauline
Are we not carrying on a warfare of savages?

Gertrude
Say rather, of women, which is even more terrible! Savages torment
the body alone; while we direct our arrows against the heart, the
self-love, the pride, the soul of those whom we attack in the very midst
of their happiness.

Pauline
That is truly said. It is the whole woman-nature that I attack.
Therefore, my dear and truly honored stepmother, you must eliminate by
to-morrow, and not later, all the obstacles that stand between me and
Ferdinand; or you may be sure my father shall learn from me the whole
course of your conduct, both before and after your marriage.

Gertrude
Ah! That is the way you are going to do it! Poor child! He will never
believe you.

Pauline
Oh, I know the domination you exercise over my father; but I have
proofs.

Gertrude
Proofs! Proofs!

Pauline
I went to Ferdinand's house--I am very inquisitive--and I found there
your letters, madame; I took from among them those which would
convince even the blindness of my father, for they will prove to him--

Gertrude
What will they prove?

Pauline
Everything!

Gertrude
But this will be, unhappy child, both theft and murder! For think of
his age.

Pauline
And have not you accomplished the murder of my happiness? Have you not
forced me to deny, both to my father and to Ferdinand, my love, my
glory, my life?

Gertrude (aside)
This is a mere trick; she knows nothing. (Aloud) This is a clever
stratagem, but I never wrote a single line. What you say is not true.
It is imposs