tigress. I will marry him to FERNANDE, and then tell him what a base
wretch she is. We'll see how he will like that. He thinks her innocent!
Ha! ha! (_Aside._--On reflection she is innocent according to this
version of the play; but SARDOU told the truth about her, and I will act
on the supposition that she is a wretch.) That will be a fit revenge,
and I can't do better than rave about it for a while." (_Raves
accordingly until the curtain falls._)

COLD-BLOODED CRITIC. "I have never seen a finer piece of acting than
that of Miss MORANT in the last scene. But then her revenge becomes
absurd when you reflect that FERNANDE is just what ANDRE fancies her, an
innocent girl. That is a fair specimen of the way in which American
writers adapt French plays. They sacrifice probability to prudery."

FASHIONABLE LADY. "How sweetly penitent FERNANDE looks in her black
dress. I hope she will be innocent enough to wear white in the next act.
One shouldn't give way to repentance or grief for too long a time. Now
when my husband died I was in the deepest grief for six months, and then
slipped into half mourning so gradually that no one noticed the change."

ACT III. FERNANDE _and_ CLOTILDE _are discovered discussing the question
of_ FERNANDE's _wedding outfit._

FERNANDE. "But does ANDRE know how naughty I behaved when I was an
innocent girl in a gambling-house?"

CLOTILDE. "He does, my dear, but you mustn't speak of it to him,"

FERNANDE. "I will write to him then, and confess all. There isn't
anything to confess, but still I am determined to confess it."