The Stepmother | Page 9

their love--
Ramel The facts, my dear fellow, give me the facts! You are making
your defence, recollect, and I am prosecuting attorney.
Ferdinand While I was settling my mother in Brittany, Gertrude met
General de Grandchamp, who was seeking a governess for his daughter.
She saw nothing in this battered warrior, then fifty-eight years old, but
a money-box. She expected that she would soon be left a widow,
wealthy and in circumstances to claim her lover and her slave. She said

to herself that her marriage would be merely a bad dream, followed
quickly by a happy awakening. You see the dream has lasted twelve
years! But you know how women reason.
Ramel They have a special jurisprudence of their own.
Ferdinand Gertrude is a woman of the fiercest jealousy. She wishes for
fidelity in her lover to recompense her for her infidelity to her husband,
and as she has suffered martyrdom, she says, she wishes--
Ramel To have you in the same house with her, that she may keep
watch over you herself.
Ferdinand She has been successful in getting me here. For the last three
years I have been living in a small house near the factory. I should have
left the first week after my arrival, but that two days' acquaintance with
Pauline convinced me that I could not live without her.
Ramel Your love for Pauline, it seems to me as a magistrate, makes
your position here somewhat less distasteful.
Ferdinand My position? I assure you, it is intolerable, among the three
characters with whom I am cast. Pauline is daring, like all young
persons who are innocent, to whom love is a wholly ideal thing, and
who see no evil in anything, so long as it concerns a man whom they
intend to marry. The penetration of Gertrude is very acute, but we
manage to elude it through Pauline's terror lest my name should be
divulged; the sense of this danger gives her strength to dissemble! But
now Pauline has just refused Godard, and I do not know what may be
the consequences.
Ramel I know Godard; under a somewhat dull exterior he conceals
great sagacity, and he is the most inquisitive man in the department. Is
he here now?
Ferdinand He dines here to-day.
Ramel Do not trust him.

Ferdinand If two women, between whom there is no love lost, make the
discovery that they are rivals, one of them, I can't say which, is capable
of killing the other, for one is strong in innocence and lawful love; the
other, furious to see the fruit of so much dissimulation, so many
sacrifices, even crimes lost to her forever.
(Enter Napoleon.)
Ramel You alarm me--me, the prosecuting attorney! Upon my word
and honor, women often cost more than they are worth.
Napoleon Dear friend! Papa and mamma are impatient about you; they
send word that you must leave your business, and Vernon says that
your stomach requires it.
Ferdinand You little rogue! You are come eavesdropping!
Napoleon Mamma whispered in my ear: "Go and see what your friend
is doing."
Ferdinand Run away, you little scamp! Be off! I am coming. (To Ramel)
You see she makes this innocent child a spy over me.
(Exit Napoleon.)
Ramel Is this the General's child?
Ferdinand Yes.
Ramel He is twelve years old?
Ferdinand About.
Ramel Have you anything more to tell me?
Ferdinand Really, I think I have told you enough.
Ramel Very well! Go and get your dinner. Say nothing of my arrival,
nor of my purpose here. Let them finish their dinner in peace. Now go

at once.
(Exit Ferdinand.)

SCENE NINTH
Ramel (alone) Poor fellow! If all young people had studied the annals
of the court, as I have done in seven years of a magistrate's work, they
would come to the conclusion that marriage must be accepted as the
sole romance which is possible in life. But if passion could control
itself it would be virtue.
Curtain to First Act.

ACT II

SCENE FIRST
(Stage setting remains as in Act I.)
Ramel and Marguerite; later, Felix.
(Ramel is buried in his reflections, reclining on the sofa in such a way
as to be almost out of sight. Marguerite brings in lights and cards.
Night is approaching.)
Marguerite Four card tables--that will be enough, even though the cure,
the mayor and his assistant come. (Felix lights the candles.) I'll wager
anything that my poor Pauline will not be married this time. Dear child!
If her late mother were to see that she was not queen of the house, she
would weep in her coffin! I only remain here in order to comfort and to
wait upon her.
Felix (aside) What is this old woman grumbling about? (Aloud) Whom

are you complaining of now,