Yes, I would go so far as to be the mere stepping-stone over
which you might climb to your crown.
Marie (drawing Fontanares by his mantle)
But I am here, I (he turns around), and you never saw me.
Fontanares
Marie! I have not spoken to you for ten days! (To Faustine) Oh!
senora, what an angel you are!
Marie (to Fontanares)
Rather say a demon. (Aloud) The senora was advising me to retire to a
convent.
Fontanares
She!
Marie
Yes.
Faustine
Children that you are, that course were best.
Fontanares
I trip up, it seems, on one snare after another, and kindness ever
conceals a pitfall. (To Marie) But tell me who brought you here?
Marie
My father!
Fontanares
He! Is he blind? You, Marie, in this house!
Faustine
Sir!
Fontanares
To a convent indeed, that she might dominate her spirit, and torture
her soul!
SCENE SIXTEENTH
The same persons and Lothundiaz.
Fontanares
And it was you who brought this angel of purity to the house of a
woman for whom Don Fregose is wasting his fortune and who accepts from
him the most extravagant gifts without marrying him?
Faustine
Sir!
Fontanares
You came here, senora, widow of a cadet of the house of Brancadori, to
whom you sacrificed the small fortune your father gave you; but here
you have utterly changed--
Faustine
What right have you to judge my actions?
Lothundiaz
Keep silence, sir; the senora is a high born lady, who has doubled the
value of my palace.
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