gypt!

The General (poking him in the ribs)
Away, you charlatan! I reckon you have killed more people than I have
in those countries.

Godard
What is this talk that you are alluding to?

Gertrude
This poor Champagne, our foreman, was supposed to have poisoned his
wife.

Vernon
Unhappily, the night before she died, they had had an altercation
which ended in blows. Ah! they don't take example from their masters.

Godard
Such happiness as reigns here ought to be contagious, but the virtues
which are exemplified in the countess are very rare.

Gertrude
Is there any merit in loving an excellent husband and a daughter such
as these?

The General
Come, Gertrude, say no more! Such words ought not to be spoken in
public.

Vernon (aside)
Such things are always said in this way, when it is necessary to make
people believe them.

The General (to Vernon)
What are you muttering about?

Vernon
I was saying that I was sixty-seven years old, and that I was younger
than you are, and that I should wish to be loved like that. (Aside) If
only I could be sure that it was love.

The General (to the doctor)
I see you are dubious! (to his wife) My dear child, there is no need
for me to bless the power of God on your behalf, but I think He must
have lent it me, in order that I might love you sufficiently.

Vernon
You forget that I am a doctor, my dear friend. What you are saying to
Madame is only good for the burden of a ballad.

Gertrude
The burdens of some ballads, doctor, are exceedingly true.

The General
Doctor, if you continue teasing my wife, we shall quarrel; to doubt on
such a subject as that is an insult.

Vernon
I have no doubt about it. (to the General) I would merely say, that
you have loved so many women with the powers of God, that I am in an
ecstasy as a doctor to see you still so good a Christian at seventy!

(Gertrude glides softly towards the sofa, where the doctor is seated.)

The General
Pshaw! The last passions, my friend, are always the strongest.

Vernon
You are right. In youth, we love with all our strength which grows
weaker with age, while in age we love with all our weakness which is
ever on the increase.

The General
Oh, vile philosophy!

Gertrude (to Vernon)
Doctor, how is it that you, who are so good, try to infuse doubts into
the heart of Grandchamp? You know that he is so jealous that he would
kill a man on suspicion. I have such respect for his feelings that I
have concl