MARCEL. How can you tell, whether in fifteen years--?
FRANÇOISE. Oh, I'm a little child--I'm different from the others: I shall always love the same man all his life. But go on, you were saying?
MARCEL. Nothing. I want you to be happy, in spite of everything, no matter what may happen--no matter what I may do.
FRANÇOISE. Even if you should deceive me?
MARCEL [_tenderly_]. Deceive you? Never! I care nothing about other women! You are my happiness--not a mere pastime.
FRANÇOISE. Because it is easier to do without happiness than pleasure.
MARCEL [_tenderly_]. Oh, you are all that is highest and best in my life. I prefer you to everything else! Let a woman come between us, and she shall have me to deal with! Call it selfishness, if you will, or egotism--but your peace of mind is an absolute necessity to me!
FRANÇOISE. You need not prepare me for the future, you bad boy: I resigned myself to "possibilities" some time ago. I'm inexperienced and young in years, but I'm older than you.
MARCEL. Shall I tell you something? I never deserved you!
MARCEL. When I think how happy you might have made some good and worthy man, and that--
FRANÇOISE. Who then would have made me happy?
FRANÇOISE. I didn't marry for happiness; I married in order to have you.
MARCEL. I'm a fool! It would be nice, wouldn't it, if I were an unfaithful husband!
FRANÇOISE. I'm sure you will never be that.
FRANÇOISE. I am positive. What would be the use in deceiving me? I should be so unhappy, and you wouldn't be a bit happier.
FRANÇOISE. No, you will not deceive me. To begin with, I have great luck.
MARCEL [_gayly_]. Of course, you have; you don't know how much!
MARCEL. I should think so! Sometimes I imagine that my happiness does not lie altogether in those sparkling eyes of yours and I try to fall in love with another woman; I fall in deeper and deeper for a week or two, and think I am terribly infatuated. But just as I am about to take the fatal leap, I fail: Françoise' luck, you see! At bottom, I'm a commencer; I can't imagine what it is that saves me--and you. Sometimes _she_ has done something to displease me, sometimes a divine word from your lips--and a mere nothing, something quite insignificant! For instance, Wednesday, I missed the train, and came back and had dinner with you. You see, Françoise' luck!