MAX.     Already  ?

HER.     Beware  of  Pepa.
TRIUMPH  OF  YOUTH  63

MAX.    I  always  am.
HER.     Ah!   but   you   don't   know   all.      She
means  to  make  you  appear  a  fool.
MAX.    A  fool?

HER.  Yes,  a  perfect  fool, — an  old  fool, — by
having  you  propose  to  her,  and  then  to  laugh  at
you.  She  told  Monsieur  Moisand  and  myself  so.
I  know  I  am  wrong  to  tell  you  this — but  [Crosses.
R.]  as  some  one  is  to  be  deceived,  I  prefer  it
shall  be  she !  [Max  up  L.  Enter  Pepa  at  backJ\
Here  she  is —  [Going.]  Remember,  I  have  told
you  nothing.  [E.rits  up  R.]

MAX.    [Aside.]    "A  fool !"— "An  old  fool  !"-
Ah,  Mademoiselle  Rimband,  you  have  gone  too
far.     [DownR.]

PEPA.  Well,  Monsieur  de  Simiers,  what  of
our  swim  ?  I  am  waiting  for  you.
MAX.  Mademoiselle,  you  need  not  wait  for
me.
PEPA.    Eh?

MAX.  The  lesson  you  wish  to  give  me,  in
modesty,  I  can  dispense  with, — but  would  in  ex-
change, if  you  will  permit  me,  give  you  some
advice.
PEPA.    Advice  ?

MAX.  Yes —  When  a  woman  braves  every-
thing— says  everything — dares  everything,  in
fact,  unsexes  herself  and  becomes  like  a  man,
she  rarely  charms  one.
64  TRIUMPH  OF  YOUTPI

PEPA.  [Laughs.  Aside  afterwards.]  Her-*
mine  has  spoken.
MAX.  [Continuing.]  So  much  flutter  forces
one  to  believe  in  the  emptiness  of  her  mind,  and
so  much  coquetry,  in  the  hollowness  of  her  heart.
PEPA.  [Forcedly  laughing.  Aside.]  Hermine
has  spoken.
MAX.  Should  she  continue  as  she  has  begun,
in  appearing  as  she  really  is  not, — we  fear  after
a  time  she  herself  may  forget  to  remember  what
indeed  she  really  is.
