Allow
me, I don't want to owe anything to anyone.
JULIE [Pretending not to notice the insult]. Do you know what the
law demands?
JEAN. I know that the law demands nothing of a woman who seduces a
man.
JULIE [Again not heeding him]. Do you see any way out of it but to
travel?--wed--and separate?
JEAN. And if I protest against this misalliance?
JULIE. Misalliance!
JEAN. Yes, for me. For you see I have a finer ancestry than you,
for I have no fire-bug in my family.
JULIE. How do you know?
JEAN. You can't prove the contrary. We have no family record except
that which the police keep. But your pedigree I have read in a book
on the drawing room table. Do you know who the founder of your
family was? It was a miller whose wife found favor with the king
during the Danish War. Such ancestry I have not.
JULIE. This is my reward for opening my heart to anyone so
unworthy, with whom I have talked about my family honor.
JEAN. Dishonor--yes, I said it. I told you not to drink because
then one talks too freely and one should never talk.
JULIE. Oh, how I repent all this. If at least you loved me!
JEAN. For the last time--what do you mean? Shall I weep, shall I
jump over your riding whip, shall I kiss you, lure you to Lake Como
for three weeks, and then--what do you want anyway? This is getting
tiresome. But that's the way it always is when you get mixed up in
women's affairs. Miss Julie, I see that you are unhappy, I know
that you suffer, but I can't understand you.
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