Guy Wetmore Carryl

“ You are perfectly free to do as seems best to you, but really you mustn’t expect that your action binds me. I’ve spent a deal of time and thought over this business, and now I shall have to spend more — but relinquish it? Why, never in the world, my friend! Beautiful, attractive, and accomplished as you are, you must realize that you are not the only woman in the world.”
“Do you mean,” demanded Mirabelle, “that you’re going on — with another woman — to play this whole miserable business over again, until you’ve had your will of him? Do you mean that what I’ve done doesn’t stand for anything?” ”

“ Mirabelle bent forward to look at him, almost curiously.
“Are you a man or a devil?” she said.
“A man, ma chère, and, in my own way, not an unreasonable or ungrateful man. To prove that, you shall have what you ask. You can see what trumpery rant you’ve been talking, and you probably regret it already. Once for all — and as you should have known — if threats of exposure could have effected anything, I’d have been the talk of Europe long ago. Please don’t try it again. It’s a waste of time and a trial of temper, and, to me at least, such scenes are always disagreeable. ”

“ Mirabelle looked at him coolly, with a slightly contemptuous droop of her eyelids.
“I believe that it’s a characteristic of both the visits I make and those I receive,” she said lazily, “that they’re seldom without an object. As for the hour, I’m not to be judged by the conventionality for which you manifest so commendable — and so abrupt — a concern. We Parisians are like our allies, the Russians: we go by standards of time which differ from those of the rest of the world. ”

“ But you? — you are different. For two years past, to my knowledge, and probably for many more, you’ve been building up a house of cards. It’s growing very tall. Monsieur Radwalader, very dangerously tall. You think the foundations strong, but they weaken with every card you add. Allons! Enough of this brawling. You know what I demand.”
“And if I refuse?” suggested Radwalader.
“If you refuse? Ah, then your game is indeed ended and your house of cards blown down! For I’ll make your name notorious, not only in Paris, but in every capital of Europe. ”

“ How should you know that, to a woman, a man is not so much a personality, as the author of all the new impulses and emotions which he brings into her life? You say he’s tired of me, and I answer you that I’m more than repaid by what he’s taught me of truth and manliness and gentleness and respect. ”

“ Radwalader sank back easily into his chair.
“My good Mirabelle,” he said, “all this is very admirable as sentiment and, I must say, extraordinarily well done. It’s a pity that it should be wasted upon an impossible situation. Be patient with me for a moment, and I’ll show you precisely why you’ll neither edify the capitals of Europe with an account of my private affairs nor compel me to do anything but what I choose to do in the case of Mr. Andrew Vane. We are three in number: I, a gentleman who chooses, for reasons of his own, to keep one side of his life from the view of the general public ”

“ You’ve taught me too much for your own good. Voyons! A secret is safe just so long as one person knows it, and only one. But no man is secure, from the moment when he confides to others that he’s not what he pretends to be. ”

“ I’ve served you faithfully, haven’t I — faithfully, unflinchingly, and loyally — from first to last?”
“From first to last,” echoed Radwalader, slowly nodding.
“Then,” said Mirabelle, with sudden passion, flinging back her head, “I ask for my reward — for my payment — for my wages. I ask of you the honour and integrity of Andrew Vane!”
“The—”
“Yes! — that — that — that! in payment for mine, which I’ve sold to you. Fair exchange is no robbery. I love him, do you hear? ”

“ Dieu! I can imagine you, as you were with Chauvigny, with little De Vitzoff, with young Baxter, with Sir Henry Gore, and the rest of them! ‘Unfortunate, of course, but really, you see, you’ve been most imprudent, and every precaution must be taken to prevent the details of this affair leaking out.’ Et cetera! ‘The only safe way with these people is to buy them off.’ Et cetera! ‘If you will put yourself in my hands, I think I can manage it for ten — twenty — thirty thousand francs.’ Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera! ”

“ It’s a pity that there must be losses as well as gains in such a business as yours, mon cher associè. It would be so much more agreeable if one could always declare a dividend, instead of making an occasional assignment. ”