"Yes," murmured la marquise. "Yes; it is I, monsieur."
"Marquise! dear marquise!" added Fouquet, ready to prostrate himself. "Ah! my God! how did you come here? And I, to keep you waiting!"
"A long time, monsieur; yes, a very long time!"
"I am happy in thinking this waiting has appeared long to you, marquise!"
"Oh! an eternity, monsieur; oh! I rang more than twenty times. Did you not hear me?"
"Marquise, you are pale, you tremble."
"Did you not hear, then, that you were summoned?"
"Oh, yes; I heard plainly enough, madame; but I could not come. After your rigors and your refusals, how could I dream it was you? If I could have had any suspicion of the happiness that awaited me, believe me, madame, I would have quitted everything to fall at your feet, as I do at this moment."
"Are we quite alone, monsieur?" asked the marquise, looking round the room.
"Oh, yes, madame, I can assure you of that."
"Really?" said the marquise, in a melancholy tone.
"You sigh!" said Fouquet.
"What mysteries! what precautions!" said the marquise, with a slight bitterness of expression; "and how evident it is that you fear the least suspicion of your amours to escape."
"Would you prefer their being made public?"
"Oh, no; you act like a delicate man," said the marquise, smiling.
"Come, dear marquise, punish me not with reproaches, I implore you."
"Reproaches! Have I a right to make you any?"
"No, unfortunately, no; but tell me, you, who during a year I have loved without return or hope--"
"You are mistaken--without hope it is true, but not without return."
"What! for me, of my love! there is but one proof, and that proof I still want."
"I am here to bring it, monsieur."
Fouquet wished to clasp her in his arms, but she disengaged herself with a gesture.
"You persist in deceiving yourself, monsieur, and will never accept of me the only thing I am willing to give you--devotion."
"Ah, then, you do not love me? Devotion is but a virtue, love is a passion."
"Listen to me, I implore you: I should not have come hither without a serious motive: you are well assured of that, are you not?"
"The motive is of very little consequence, so that you are but here--so that I see you--so that I speak to you!"