d the curtain.
Margot''s exhortation lingered in her mind: deep down, she still hoped to prove to herself that who she loved was still the little painter Andre of the past.
He climbed onto the carriage and, upon seeing Edith inside, did not exchange his expression for a docile smile. He merely nodded slightly at her and sat down beside in silence. This time, he did not lean close to her in relax as before, but rather bended over and crossed his hands in front of his knees, staring fixedly at the opposite wall of the carriage as if forbearing intense nervousness.
Edith felt the oppressive atmosphere in the carriage and chose not to look at the person next to her. Instead, she turned her head towards the window and watched the streets gradually left behind by the carriage.
Looking at the pale cobbles on the ground illuminated by the moonlight, she casually spoke of her recent outing with the Dantons, and intentionally brought up Raphael''s misgivings with a joking tone, trying to sound out Andre''s reaction.
Andre suddenly put on a stern face and interrupted her coldly, "Stop talking, Edith. You know I dislike Saint-Clemont."
Edith had never heard him speak to her in such a condescending tone and was stunned for a moment before retorting angrily, "You''re really getting to be a bossy big shot, starting to look down on everyone around!"
"What''s the problem?" Andre snorted. "Whether it''s Danton''s coarse and indulgent passion, profligate hedonism, Desmoulins'' pretentious words and out-of-line jokes, or Saint-Clemont''s annoying indecision and aristocratic melancholy, all of them disgust and disdain me! I can''t see why you like hanging out with that group so much."
Hearing him belittle her friends as worthless like this, Edith was even more astonished and infuriated.
She sneered, "What, now I have to ask for your approval to make friends, Citizen Quenet?"
"I don''t understand how you can love me and at the same time like him, like them, Mademoiselle!" he suddenly shouted bitterly. "We have nothing in common. Danton and his followers have long abandoned virtue. To ally with the aristocrats, they have thoroughly learned the corruption of the nobility very well! How can people without