Just then the curtain rose for the third act, and they turned round,
took off their hats, and sat down.


IV

The Count and Countess Mascaret were sitting side by side in the
carriage which was taking them home from the opera, without speaking.
But suddenly the husband said to his wife: "Gabrielle!" "What do you
want?" "Don't you think that this has lasted long enough?" "What?" "The
horrible punishment to which you have condemned me for the last six
years." "What do you want? I cannot help it." "Then tell me which of
them it is!" "Never!" "Think that I can no longer see my children or
feel them round me, without having my heart burdened with this doubt.
Tell me which of them it is, and I swear that I will forgive you, and
treat it like the others." "I have not the right to." "You do not see
that I can no longer endure this life, this thought which is wearing me
out, or this question which I am constantly asking myself, this question
which tortures me each time I look at them. It is driving me mad."

"Then you have suffered a great deal?" she said.

"Terribly. Should I, without that, have accepted the horror of living by
your side, and the still greater horror of feeling and knowing that
there is one among them whom I cannot recognize, and who prevents me
from loving the others." She repeated: "Then you have really suffered
very much?" And he replied in a constrained and sorrowful voice:

"Yes, for do I not tell you every day that it is intolerable torture for
me? Should I have remained in that house, near you and them, if I did