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Camille (La Dame aux Camilias)

Page 109

"Because you are doing things which outrage the respect that you imagine

you have for your family."

"I don't follow your meaning."

"I will explain it to you. Have a mistress if you will; pay her as a

man of honour is bound to pay the woman whom he keeps, by all means; but

that you should come to forget the most sacred things for her, that

you should let the report of your scandalous life reach my quiet

countryside, and set a blot on the honourable name that I have given

you, it can not, it shall not be."

"Permit me to tell you, father, that those who have given you

information about me have been ill-informed. I am the lover of Mlle.

Gautier; I live with her; it is the most natural thing in the world.

I do not give Mlle. Gautier the name you have given me; I spend on her

account what my means allow me to spend; I have no debts; and, in short,

I am not in a position which authorizes a father to say to his son what

you have just said to me."

"A father is always authorized to rescue his son out of evil paths. You

have not done any harm yet, but you will do it."

"Father!"

"Sir, I know more of life than you do. There are no entirely pure

sentiments except in perfectly chaste women. Every Manon can have her

own Des Grieux, and times are changed. It would be useless for the

world to grow older if it did not correct its ways. You will leave your

mistress."

"I am very sorry to disobey you, father, but it is impossible."

"I will compel you to do so."

"Unfortunately, father, there no longer exists a Sainte Marguerite to

which courtesans can be sent, and, even if there were, I would follow

Mlle. Gautier if you succeeded in having her sent there. What would you

have? Perhaps am in the wrong, but I can only be happy as long as I am

the lover of this woman."

"Come, Armand, open your eyes. Recognise that it is your father who

speaks to you, your father who has always loved you, and who only

desires your happiness. Is it honourable for you to live like husband

and wife with a woman whom everybody has had?"

"What does it matter, father, if no one will any more? What does it

matter, if this woman loves me, if her whole life is changed through the

love which she has for me and the love which I have for her? What does

it matter, if she has become a different woman?"

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