all! Do not be vexed with me.
Young girls are foolish, they have no ambition but in their love, and
they would fain rule over the past as they rule over the future of
their beloved! But you hate her! And in that word, you give me more
proof of love than you have given me for the two years that we have
loved. If only you knew with what cruelty this stepmother has put me
on the rack, by her questions! But I will be avenged!

Ferdinand
You must be very careful! She is a very dangerous woman! She rules
your father. She is a woman who will fight to the death!

Pauline
To the death! That is as I wish it!

Ferdinand
Be prudent, dear Pauline! We are going to act in harmony, are we not?
Well, my love, the prosecuting attorney is of opinion that if we would
triumph over the difficulties that prevent our union, we must have
fortitude enough to part for some time.

Pauline
Oh! Give me two days and I will win over my father!

Ferdinand
But you do not know Madame de Grandchamp. She has gone too far to
leave off without ruining you, and to do that she will go to any
lengths. But I will not go away without giving you what may prove most
effective weapons against her.

Pauline
Oh, give them, give them to me!

Ferdinand
Not yet. And you must promise me not to make use of them, unless your
life is in danger; for what I am doing is certainly a breach of
confidence. But it is for your sake I do it.

Pauline
Tell me what it is?

Ferdinand
To-morrow I shall put into your hands the letters which she wrote to
me, some of them before, some of them after her marriage. Pauline, do
not read them! Swear this to me, in the name of our love, in the name
of our happiness! It will be sufficient, should it ever become
absolutely necessary, that she knows that they are in your possession;
at that moment you will see her trembling and groveling at your feet,
for all her machinations then are foiled. But do not use them
excepting as a last resort, and keep them well concealed.

Pauline
What a terrible duel it will be!

Ferdinand
Terrible! But, Pauline be courageous, as you have so far been, in
keeping the secret of our love; do not acknowledge it, until you find
it no longer possible to deny it.

Pauline
Oh, why did your father betray the Emperor? If fathers knew how their
children would be punished for the sins of their parents, there would
be none but good men!

Ferdinand
Perhaps this sad interview will prove the last moment o