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diff --git a/4970.txt b/4970.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e6c4cb --- /dev/null +++ b/4970.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3765 @@ +Project Gutenberg's There are Crimes and Crimes, by August Strindberg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: There are Crimes and Crimes + A Comedy + +Author: August Strindberg + +Translator: Edwin Bjorkman + + +Release Date: January, 2004 [EBook #4970] +This file was first posted on April 8, 2002 +Last Updated: May 5, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES *** + + + + +Produced by Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + +THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES + +A Comedy + +By August Strindberg + + +Translated from the Swedish with an Introduction by Edwin Bjorkman + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Strindberg was fifty years old when he wrote "There Are Crimes and +Crimes." In the same year, 1899, he produced three of his finest +historical dramas: "The Saga of the Folkungs," "Gustavus Vasa," and +"Eric XIV." Just before, he had finished "Advent," which he described as +"A Mystery," and which was published together with "There Are Crimes +and Crimes" under the common title of "In a Higher Court." Back of these +dramas lay his strange confessional works, "Inferno" and "Legends," +and the first two parts of his autobiographical dream-play, "Toward +Damascus"--all of which were finished between May, 1897, and some time +in the latter part of 1898. And back of these again lay that period of +mental crisis, when, at Paris, in 1895 and 1896, he strove to make gold +by the transmutation of baser metals, while at the same time his spirit +was travelling through all the seven hells in its search for the heaven +promised by the great mystics of the past. + +"There Are Crimes and Crimes" may, in fact, be regarded as his first +definite step beyond that crisis, of which the preceding works were +at once the record and closing chord. When, in 1909, he issued "The +Author," being a long withheld fourth part of his first autobiographical +series, "The Bondwoman's Son," he prefixed to it an analytical summary +of the entire body of his work. Opposite the works from 1897-8 appears +in this summary the following passage: "The great crisis at the age +of fifty; revolutions in the life of the soul, desert wanderings, +Swedenborgian Heavens and Hells." But concerning "There Are Crimes and +Crimes" and the three historical dramas from the same year he writes +triumphantly: "Light after darkness; new productivity, with recovered +Faith, Hope and Love--and with full, rock-firm Certitude." + +In its German version the play is named "Rausch," or "Intoxication," +which indicates the part played by the champagne in the plunge of +Maurice from the pinnacles of success to the depths of misfortune. +Strindberg has more and more come to see that a moderation verging +closely on asceticism is wise for most men and essential to the man of +genius who wants to fulfil his divine mission. And he does not scorn +to press home even this comparatively humble lesson with the naive +directness and fiery zeal which form such conspicuous features of all +his work. + +But in the title which bound it to "Advent" at their joint publication +we have a better clue to what the author himself undoubtedly regards +as the most important element of his work--its religious tendency. The +"higher court," in which are tried the crimes of Maurice, Adolphe, and +Henriette, is, of course, the highest one that man can imagine. And the +crimes of which they have all become guilty are those which, as Adolphe +remarks, "are not mentioned in the criminal code"--in a word, crimes +against the spirit, against the impalpable power that moves us, against +God. The play, seen in this light, pictures a deep-reaching spiritual +change, leading us step by step from the soul adrift on the waters of +life to the state where it is definitely oriented and impelled. + +There are two distinct currents discernible in this dramatic revelation +of progress from spiritual chaos to spiritual order--for to order +the play must be said to lead, and progress is implied in its onward +movement, if there be anything at all in our growing modern conviction +that ANY vital faith is better than none at all. One of the currents +in question refers to the means rather than the end, to the road rather +than the goal. It brings us back to those uncanny soul-adventures by +which Strindberg himself won his way to the "full, rock-firm Certitude" +of which the play in its entirety is the first tangible expression. The +elements entering into this current are not only mystical, but occult. +They are derived in part from Swedenborg, and in part from that +picturesque French dreamer who signs himself "Sar Peladan"; but mostly +they have sprung out of Strindberg's own experiences in moments of +abnormal tension. + +What happened, or seemed to happen, to himself at Paris in 1895, +and what he later described with such bewildering exactitude in his +"Inferno" and "Legends," all this is here presented in dramatic form, +but a little toned down, both to suit the needs of the stage and the +calmer mood of the author. Coincidence is law. It is the finger-point +of Providence, the signal to man that he must beware. Mystery is the +gospel: the secret knitting of man to man, of fact to fact, deep beneath +the surface of visible and audible existence. Few writers could take +us into such a realm of probable impossibilities and possible +improbabilities without losing all claim to serious consideration. If +Strindberg has thus ventured to our gain and no loss of his own, his +success can be explained only by the presence in the play of that +second, parallel current of thought and feeling. + +This deeper current is as simple as the one nearer the surface is +fantastic. It is the manifestation of that "rock-firm Certitude" to +which I have already referred. And nothing will bring us nearer to it +than Strindberg's own confession of faith, given in his "Speeches to +the Swedish Nation" two years ago. In that pamphlet there is a chapter +headed "Religion," in which occurs this passage: "Since 1896 I have been +calling myself a Christian. I am not a Catholic, and have never been, +but during a stay of seven years in Catholic countries and among +Catholic relatives, I discovered that the difference between Catholic +and Protestant tenets is either none at all, or else wholly superficial, +and that the division which once occurred was merely political or else +concerned with theological problems not fundamentally germane to the +religion itself. A registered Protestant I am and will remain, but I can +hardly be called orthodox or evangelistic, but come nearest to being a +Swedenborgian. I use my Bible Christianity internally and privately +to tame my somewhat decivilized nature--decivilised by that veterinary +philosophy and animal science (Darwinism) in which, as student at the +university, I was reared. And I assure my fellow-beings that they have +no right to complain because, according to my ability, I practise the +Christian teachings. For only through religion, or the hope of something +better, and the recognition of the innermost meaning of life as that of +an ordeal, a school, or perhaps a penitentiary, will it be possible to +bear the burden of life with sufficient resignation." + +Here, as elsewhere, it is made patent that Strindberg's religiosity +always, on closer analysis, reduces itself to morality. At bottom he +is first and last, and has always been, a moralist--a man passionately +craving to know what is RIGHT and to do it. During the middle, +naturalistic period of his creative career, this fundamental tendency +was in part obscured, and he engaged in the game of intellectual +curiosity known as "truth for truth's own sake." One of the chief marks +of his final and mystical period is his greater courage to "be himself" +in this respect--and this means necessarily a return, or an advance, +to a position which the late William James undoubtedly would have +acknowledged as "pragmatic." To combat the assertion of over-developed +individualism that we are ends in ourselves, that we have certain +inalienable personal "rights" to pleasure and happiness merely because +we happen to appear here in human shape, this is one of Strindberg's +most ardent aims in all his later works. + +As to the higher and more inclusive object to which our lives must be +held subservient, he is not dogmatic. It may be another life. He calls +it God. And the code of service he finds in the tenets of all the +Christian churches, but principally in the Commandments. The plain +and primitive virtues, the faith that implies little more than square +dealing between man and man--these figure foremost in Strindberg's +ideals. In an age of supreme self-seeking like ours, such an outlook +would seem to have small chance of popularity, but that it embodies +just what the time most needs is, perhaps, made evident by the reception +which the public almost invariably grants "There Are Crimes and Crimes" +when it is staged. + +With all its apparent disregard of what is commonly called realism, and +with its occasional, but quite unblushing, use of methods generally held +superseded--such as the casual introduction of characters at whatever +moment they happen to be needed on the stage--it has, from the start, +been among the most frequently played and most enthusiastically received +of Strindberg's later dramas. At Stockholm it was first taken up by +the Royal Dramatic Theatre, and was later seen on the tiny stage of the +Intimate Theatre, then devoted exclusively to Strindberg's works. It +was one of the earliest plays staged by Reinhardt while he was still +experimenting with his Little Theatre at Berlin, and it has also been +given in numerous German cities, as well as in Vienna. + +Concerning my own version of the play I wish to add a word of +explanation. Strindberg has laid the scene in Paris. Not only the +scenery, but the people and the circumstances are French. Yet he has +made no attempt whatever to make the dialogue reflect French manners +of speaking or ways of thinking. As he has given it to us, the play is +French only in its most superficial aspect, in its setting--and this +setting he has chosen simply because he needed a certain machinery +offered him by the Catholic, but not by the Protestant, churches. The +rest of the play is purely human in its note and wholly universal in its +spirit. For this reason I have retained the French names and titles, but +have otherwise striven to bring everything as close as possible to our +own modes of expression. Should apparent incongruities result from this +manner of treatment, I think they will disappear if only the reader will +try to remember that the characters of the play move in an existence +cunningly woven by the author out of scraps of ephemeral reality in +order that he may show us the mirage of a more enduring one. + + + + +THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES + + +A COMEDY + + +1899 + + + + +CHARACTERS + + MAURICE, a playwright + JEANNE, his mistress + MARION, their daughter, five years old + ADOLPHE, a painter + HENRIETTE, his mistress + EMILE, a workman, brother of Jeanne + MADAME CATHERINE + THE ABBE + A WATCHMAN + A HEAD WAITER + A COMMISSAIRE + TWO DETECTIVES + A WAITER + A GUARD + A SERVANT GIRL + + + + ACT I, SCENE 1. THE CEMETERY + 2. THE CREMERIE + + ACT II, SCENE 1. THE AUBERGE DES ADRETS + 2. THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE + + ACT III, SCENE 1. THE CREMERIE + 2. THE AUBERGE DES ADRETS + + ACT IV, SCENE 1. THE LUXEMBOURG GARDENS + 2. THE CREMERIE + + (All the scenes are laid in Paris) + + + + +THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES + + + + +ACT I + + + + +FIRST SCENE + + +(The upper avenue of cypresses in the Montparnasse Cemetery at Paris. +The background shows mortuary chapels, stone crosses on which are +inscribed "O Crux! Ave Spes Unica!" and the ruins of a wind-mill covered +with ivy.) + +(A well-dressed woman in widow's weeds is kneeling and muttering prayers +in front of a grave decorated with flowers.) + +(JEANNE is walking back and forth as if expecting somebody.) + +(MARION is playing with some withered flowers picked from a rubbish heap +on the ground.) + +(The ABBE is reading his breviary while walking along the further end of +the avenue.) + +WATCHMAN. [Enters and goes up to JEANNE] Look here, this is no +playground. + +JEANNE. [Submissively] I am only waiting for somebody who'll soon be +here-- + +WATCHMAN. All right, but you're not allowed to pick any flowers. + +JEANNE. [To MARION] Drop the flowers, dear. + +ABBE. [Comes forward and is saluted by the WATCHMAN] Can't the child +play with the flowers that have been thrown away? + +WATCHMAN. The regulations don't permit anybody to touch even the flowers +that have been thrown away, because it's believed they may spread +infection--which I don't know if it's true. + +ABBE. [To MARION] In that case we have to obey, of course. What's your +name, my little girl? + +MARION. My name is Marion. + +ABBE. And who is your father? + +(MARION begins to bite one of her fingers and does not answer.) + +ABBE. Pardon my question, madame. I had no intention--I was just talking +to keep the little one quiet. + +(The WATCHMAN has gone out.) + +JEANNE. I understood it, Reverend Father, and I wish you would say +something to quiet me also. I feel very much disturbed after having +waited here two hours. + +ABBE. Two hours--for him! How these human beings torture each other! O +Crux! Ave spes unica! + +JEANNE. What do they mean, those words you read all around here? + +ABBE. They mean: O cross, our only hope! + +JEANNE. Is it the only one? + +ABBE. The only certain one. + +JEANNE. I shall soon believe that you are right, Father. + +ABBE. May I ask why? + +JEANNE. You have already guessed it. When he lets the woman and the +child wait two hours in a cemetery, then the end is not far off. + +ABBE. And when he has left you, what then? + +JEANNE. Then we have to go into the river. + +ABBE. Oh, no, no! + +JEANNE. Yes, yes! + +MARION. Mamma, I want to go home, for I am hungry. + +JEANNE. Just a little longer, dear, and we'll go home. + +ABBE. Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil. + +JEANNE. What is that woman doing at the grave over there? + +ABBE. She seems to be talking to the dead. + +JEANNE. But you cannot do that? + +ABBE. She seems to know how. + +JEANNE. This would mean that the end of life is not the end of our +misery? + +ABBE. And you don't know it? + +JEANNE. Where can I find out? + +ABBE. Hm! The next time you feel as if you wanted to learn about this +well-known matter, you can look me up in Our Lady's Chapel at the Church +of St. Germain--Here comes the one you are waiting for, I guess. + +JEANNE. [Embarrassed] No, he is not the one, but I know him. + +ABBE. [To MARION] Good-bye, little Marion! May God take care of you! +[Kisses the child and goes out] At St. Germain des Pres. + +EMILE. [Enters] Good morning, sister. What are you doing here? + +JEANNE. I am waiting for Maurice. + +EMILE. Then I guess you'll have a lot of waiting to do, for I saw him on +the boulevard an hour ago, taking breakfast with some friends. [Kissing +the child] Good morning, Marion. + +JEANNE. Ladies also? + +EMILE. Of course. But that doesn't mean anything. He writes plays, and +his latest one has its first performance tonight. I suppose he had with +him some of the actresses. + +JEANNE. Did he recognise you? + +EMILE. No, he doesn't know who I am, and it is just as well. I know my +place as a workman, and I don't care for any condescension from those +that are above me. + +JEANNE. But if he leaves us without anything to live on? + +EMILE. Well, you see, when it gets that far, then I suppose I shall +have to introduce myself. But you don't expect anything of the kind, do +you--seeing that he is fond of you and very much attached to the child? + +JEANNE. I don't know, but I have a feeling that something dreadful is in +store for me. + +EMILE. Has he promised to marry you? + +JEANNE. No, not promised exactly, but he has held out hopes. + +EMILE. Hopes, yes! Do you remember my words at the start: don't hope for +anything, for those above us don't marry downward. + +JEANNE. But such things have happened. + +EMILE. Yes, they have happened. But, would you feel at home in his +world? I can't believe it, for you wouldn't even understand what they +were talking of. Now and then I take my meals where he is eating--out in +the kitchen is my place, of course--and I don't make out a word of what +they say. + +JEANNE. So you take your meals at that place? + +EMILE. Yes, in the kitchen. + +JEANNE. And think of it, he has never asked me to come with him. + +EMILE. Well, that's rather to his credit, and it shows he has some +respect for the mother of his child. The women over there are a queer +lot. + +JEANNE. Is that so? + +EMILE. But Maurice never pays any attention to the women. There is +something SQUARE about that fellow. + +JEANNE. That's what I feel about him, too, but as soon as there is a +woman in it, a man isn't himself any longer. + +EMILE. [Smiling] You don't tell me! But listen: are you hard up for +money? + +JEANNE. No, nothing of that kind. + +EMILE. Well, then the worst hasn't come yet--Look! Over there! There he +comes. And I'll leave you. Good-bye, little girl. + +JEANNE. Is he coming? Yes, that's him. + +EMILE. Don't make him mad now--with your jealousy, Jeanne! [Goes out.] + +JEANNE. No, I won't. + +(MAURICE enters.) + +MARION. [Runs up to him and is lifted up into his arms] Papa, papa! + +MAURICE. My little girl! [Greets JEANNE] Can you forgive me, Jeanne, +that I have kept you waiting so long? + +JEANNE. Of course I can. + +MAURICE. But say it in such a way that I can hear that you are forgiving +me. + +JEANNE. Come here and let me whisper it to you. + +(MAURICE goes up close to her.) + +(JEANNE kisses him on the cheek.) + +MAURICE. I didn't hear. + +(JEANNE kisses him on the mouth.) + +MAURICE. Now I heard! Well--you know, I suppose that this is the day +that will settle my fate? My play is on for tonight, and there is every +chance that it will succeed--or fail. + +JEANNE. I'll make sure of success by praying for you. + +MAURICE. Thank you. If it doesn't help, it can at least do no harm--Look +over there, down there in the valley, where the haze is thickest: there +lies Paris. Today Paris doesn't know who Maurice is, but it is going to +know within twenty-four hours. The haze, which has kept me obscured for +thirty years, will vanish before my breath, and I shall become +visible, I shall assume definite shape and begin to be somebody. My +enemies--which means all who would like to do what I have done--will be +writhing in pains that shall be my pleasures, for they will be suffering +all that I have suffered. + +JEANNE. Don't talk that way, don't! + +MAURICE. But that's the way it is. + +JEANNE. Yes, but don't speak of it--And then? + +MAURICE. Then we are on firm ground, and then you and Marion will bear +the name I have made famous. + +JEANNE. You love me then? + +MAURICE. I love both of you, equally much, or perhaps Marion a little +more. + +JEANNE. I am glad of it, for you can grow tired of me, but not of her. + +MAURICE. Have you no confidence in my feelings toward you? + +JEANNE. I don't know, but I am afraid of something, afraid of something +terrible-- + +MAURICE. You are tired out and depressed by your long wait, which once +more I ask you to forgive. What have you to be afraid of? + +JEANNE. The unexpected: that which you may foresee without having any +particular reason to do so. + +MAURICE. But I foresee only success, and I have particular reasons for +doing so: the keen instincts of the management and their knowledge +of the public, not to speak of their personal acquaintance with the +critics. So now you must be in good spirits-- + +JEANNE. I can't, I can't! Do you know, there was an Abbe here a while +ago, who talked so beautifully to us. My faith--which you haven't +destroyed, but just covered up, as when you put chalk on a window to +clean it--I couldn't lay hold on it for that reason, but this old man +just passed his hand over the chalk, and the light came through, and it +was possible again to see that the people within were at home--To-night +I will pray for you at St. Germain. + +MAURICE. Now I am getting scared. + +JEANNE. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. + +MAURICE. God? What is that? Who is he? + +JEANNE. It was he who gave joy to your youth and strength to your +manhood. And it is he who will carry us through the terrors that lie +ahead of us. + +MAURICE. What is lying ahead of us? What do you know? Where have you +learned of this? This thing that I don't know? + +JEANNE. I can't tell. I have dreamt nothing, seen nothing, heard +nothing. But during these two dreadful hours I have experienced such an +infinity of pain that I am ready for the worst. + +MARION. Now I want to go home, mamma, for I am hungry. + +MAURICE. Yes, you'll go home now, my little darling. [Takes her into his +arms.] + +MARION. [Shrinking] Oh, you hurt me, papa! + +JEANNE. Yes, we must get home for dinner. Good-bye then, Maurice. And +good luck to you! + +MAURICE. [To MARION] How did I hurt you? Doesn't my little girl know +that I always want to be nice to her? + +MARION. If you are nice, you'll come home with us. + +MAURICE. [To JEANNE] When I hear the child talk like that, you know, +I feel as if I ought to do what she says. But then reason and duty +protest--Good-bye, my dear little girl! [He kisses the child, who puts +her arms around his neck.] + +JEANNE. When do we meet again? + +MAURICE. We'll meet tomorrow, dear. And then we'll never part again. + +JEANNE. [Embraces him] Never, never to part again! [She makes the sign +of the cross on his forehead] May God protect you! + +MAURICE. [Moved against his own will] My dear, beloved Jeanne! + +(JEANNE and MARION go toward the right; MAURICE toward the left. Both +turn around simultaneously and throw kisses at each other.) + +MAURICE. [Comes back] Jeanne, I am ashamed of myself. I am always +forgetting you, and you are the last one to remind me of it. Here are +the tickets for tonight. + +JEANNE. Thank you, dear, but--you have to take up your post of duty +alone, and so I have to take up mine--with Marion. + +MAURICE. Your wisdom is as great as the goodness of your heart. Yes, +I am sure no other woman would have sacrificed a pleasure to serve her +husband--I must have my hands free tonight, and there is no place for +women and children on the battle-field--and this you understood! + +JEANNE. Don't think too highly of a poor woman like myself, and then +you'll have no illusions to lose. And now you'll see that I can be as +forgetful as you--I have bought you a tie and a pair of gloves which I +thought you might wear for my sake on your day of honour. + +MAURICE. [Kissing her hand] Thank you, dear. + +JEANNE. And then, Maurice, don't forget to have your hair fixed, as you +do all the time. I want you to be good-looking, so that others will like +you too. + +MAURICE. There is no jealousy in YOU! + +JEANNE. Don't mention that word, for evil thoughts spring from it. + +MAURICE. Just now I feel as if I could give up this evening's +victory--for I am going to win-- + +JEANNE. Hush, hush! + +MAURICE. And go home with you instead. + +JEANNE. But you mustn't do that! Go now: your destiny is waiting for +you. + +MAURICE. Good-bye then! And may that happen which must happen! [Goes +out.] + +JEANNE. [Alone with MARION] O Crux! Ave spes unica! + +Curtain. + + + + +SECOND SCENE + +(The Cremerie. On the right stands a buffet, on which are placed +an aquarium with goldfish and dishes containing vegetables, fruit, +preserves, etc. In the background is a door leading to the kitchen, +where workmen are taking their meals. At the other end of the kitchen +can be seen a door leading out to a garden. On the left, in the +background, stands a counter on a raised platform, and back of it are +shelves containing all sorts of bottles. On the right, a long table +with a marble top is placed along the wall, and another table is placed +parallel to the first further out on the floor. Straw-bottomed chairs +stand around the tables. The walls are covered with oil-paintings.) + +(MME. CATHERINE is sitting at the counter.) + +(MAURICE stands leaning against it. He has his hat on and is smoking a +cigarette.) + +MME. CATHERINE. So it's tonight the great event comes off, Monsieur +Maurice? + +MAURICE. Yes, tonight. + +MME. CATHERINE. Do you feel upset? + +MAURICE. Cool as a cucumber. + +MME. CATHERINE. Well, I wish you luck anyhow, and you have deserved it, +Monsieur Maurice, after having had to fight against such difficulties as +yours. + +MAURICE. Thank you, Madame Catherine. You have been very kind to me, and +without your help I should probably have been down and out by this time. + +MME. CATHERINE. Don't let us talk of that now. I help along where I +see hard work and the right kind of will, but I don't want to be +exploited--Can we trust you to come back here after the play and let us +drink a glass with you? + +MAURICE. Yes, you can--of course, you can, as I have already promised +you. + +(HENRIETTE enters from the right.) + +(MAURICE turns around, raises his hat, and stares at HENRIETTE, who +looks him over carefully.) + +HENRIETTE. Monsieur Adolphe is not here yet? + +MME. CATHERINE. No, madame. But he'll soon be here now. Won't you sit +down? + +HENRIETTE. No, thank you, I'll rather wait for him outside. [Goes out.] + +MAURICE. Who--was--that? + +MME. CATHERINE. Why, that's Monsieur Adolphe's friend. + +MAURICE. Was--that--her? + +MME. CATHERINE. Have you never seen her before? + +MAURICE. No, he has been hiding her from me, just as if he was afraid I +might take her away from him. + +MME. CATHERINE. Ha-ha!--Well, how did you think she looked? + +MAURICE. How she looked? Let me see: I can't tell--I didn't see her, for +it was as if she had rushed straight into my arms at once and come so +close to me that I couldn't make out her features at all. And she left +her impression on the air behind her. I can still see her standing +there. [He goes toward the door and makes a gesture as if putting his +arm around somebody] Whew! [He makes a gesture as if he had pricked his +finger] There are pins in her waist. She is of the kind that stings! + +MME. CATHERINE. Oh, you are crazy, you with your ladies! + +MAURICE. Yes, it's craziness, that's what it is. But do you know, Madame +Catherine, I am going before she comes back, or else, or else--Oh, that +woman is horrible! + +MME. CATHERINE. Are you afraid? + +MAURICE. Yes, I am afraid for myself, and also for some others. + +MME. CATHERINE. Well, go then. + +MAURICE. She seemed to suck herself out through the door, and in her +wake rose a little whirlwind that dragged me along--Yes, you may laugh, +but can't you see that the palm over there on the buffet is still +shaking? She's the very devil of a woman! + +MME. CATHERINE. Oh, get out of here, man, before you lose all your +reason. + +MAURICE. I want to go, but I cannot--Do you believe in fate, Madame +Catherine? + +MME. CATHERINE. No, I believe in a good God, who protects us against +evil powers if we ask Him in the right way. + +MAURICE. So there are evil powers after all! I think I can hear them in +the hallway now. + +MME. CATHERINE. Yes, her clothes rustle as when the clerk tears off a +piece of linen for you. Get away now--through the kitchen. + +(MAURICE rushes toward the kitchen door, where he bumps into EMILE.) + +EMILE. I beg your pardon. [He retires the way he came.] + +ADOLPHE. [Comes in first; after him HENRIETTE] Why, there's Maurice. How +are you? Let me introduce this lady here to my oldest and best friend. +Mademoiselle Henriette--Monsieur Maurice. + +MAURICE. [Saluting stiffly] Pleased to meet you. + +HENRIETTA. We have seen each other before. + +ADOLPHE. Is that so? When, if I may ask? + +MAURICE. A moment ago. Right here. + +ADOLPHE. O-oh!--But now you must stay and have a chat with us. + +MAURICE. [After a glance at MME. CATHERINE] If I only had time. + +ADOLPHE. Take the time. And we won't be sitting here very long. + +HENRIETTE. I won't interrupt, if you have to talk business. + +MAURICE. The only business we have is so bad that we don't want to talk +of it. + +HENRIETTE. Then we'll talk of something else. [Takes the hat away from +MAURICE and hangs it up] Now be nice, and let me become acquainted with +the great author. + +MME. CATHERINE signals to MAURICE, who doesn't notice her. + +ADOLPHE. That's right, Henriette, you take charge of him. [They seat +themselves at one of the tables.] + +HENRIETTE. [To MAURICE] You certainly have a good friend in Adolphe, +Monsieur Maurice. He never talks of anything but you, and in such a way +that I feel myself rather thrown in the background. + +ADOLPHE. You don't say so! Well, Henriette on her side never leaves me +in peace about you, Maurice. She has read your works, and she is +always wanting to know where you got this and where that. She has been +questioning me about your looks, your age, your tastes. I have, in a +word, had you for breakfast, dinner, and supper. It has almost seemed as +if the three of us were living together. + +MAURICE. [To HENRIETTE] Heavens, why didn't you come over here and have +a look at this wonder of wonders? Then your curiosity could have been +satisfied in a trice. + +HENRIETTE. Adolphe didn't want it. + +(ADOLPHE looks embarrassed.) + +HENRIETTE. Not that he was jealous-- + +MAURICE. And why should he be, when he knows that my feelings are tied +up elsewhere? + +HENRIETTE. Perhaps he didn't trust the stability of your feelings. + +MAURICE. I can't understand that, seeing that I am notorious for my +constancy. + +ADOLPHE. Well, it wasn't that-- + +HENRIETTE. [Interrupting him] Perhaps that is because you have not faced +the fiery ordeal-- + +ADOLPHE. Oh, you don't know-- + +HENRIETTE. [Interrupting]--for the world has not yet beheld a faithful +man. + +MAURICE. Then it's going to behold one. + +HENRIETTE. Where? + +MAURICE. Here. + +(HENRIETTE laughs.) + +ADOLPHE. Well, that's going it-- + +HENRIETTE. [Interrupting him and directing herself continuously to +MAURICE] Do you think I ever trust my dear Adolphe more than a month at +a time? + +MAURICE. I have no right to question your lack of confidence, but I can +guarantee that Adolphe is faithful. + +HENRIETTE. You don't need to do so--my tongue is just running away with +me, and I have to take back a lot--not only for fear of feeling less +generous than you, but because it is the truth. It is a bad habit I have +of only seeing the ugly side of things, and I keep it up although I know +better. But if I had a chance to be with you two for some time, then +your company would make me good once more. Pardon me, Adolphe! [She puts +her hand against his cheek.] + +ADOLPHE. You are always wrong in your talk and right in your actions. +What you really think--that I don't know. + +HENRIETTE. Who does know that kind of thing? + +MAURICE. Well, if we had to answer for our thoughts, who could then +clear himself? + +HENRIETTE. Do you also have evil thoughts? + +MAURICE. Certainly; just as I commit the worst kind of cruelties in my +dreams. + +HENRIETTE. Oh, when you are dreaming, of course--Just think of it--No, I +am ashamed of telling-- + +MAURICE. Go on, go on! + +HENRIETTE. Last night I dreamt that I was coolly dissecting the muscles +on Adolphe's breast--you see, I am a sculptor--and he, with his usual +kindness, made no resistance, but helped me instead with the worst +places, as he knows more anatomy than I. + +MAURICE. Was he dead? + +HENRIETTE. No, he was living. + +MAURICE. But that's horrible! And didn't it make YOU suffer? + +HENRIETTE. Not at all, and that astonished me most, for I am rather +sensitive to other people's sufferings. Isn't that so, Adolphe? + +ADOLPHE. That's right. Rather abnormally so, in fact, and not the least +when animals are concerned. + +MAURICE. And I, on the other hand, am rather callous toward the +sufferings both of myself and others. + +ADOLPHE. Now he is not telling the truth about himself. Or what do you +say, Madame Catherine? + +MME. CATHERINE. I don't know of anybody with a softer heart than +Monsieur Maurice. He came near calling in the police because I didn't +give the goldfish fresh water--those over there on the buffet. Just look +at them: it is as if they could hear what I am saying. + +MAURICE. Yes, here we are making ourselves out as white as angels, and +yet we are, taking it all in all, capable of any kind of polite atrocity +the moment glory, gold, or women are concerned--So you are a sculptor, +Mademoiselle Henriette? + +HENRIETTE. A bit of one. Enough to do a bust. And to do one of +you--which has long been my cherished dream--I hold myself quite +capable. + +MAURICE. Go ahead! That dream at least need not be long in coming true. + +HENRIETTE. But I don't want to fix your features in my mind until this +evening's success is over. Not until then will you have become what you +should be. + +MAURICE. How sure you are of victory! + +HENRIETTE. Yes, it is written on your face that you are going to win +this battle, and I think you must feel that yourself. + +MAURICE. Why do you think so? + +HENRIETTE. Because I can feel it. This morning I was ill, you know, and +now I am well. + +(ADOLPHE begins to look depressed.) + +MAURICE. [Embarrassed] Listen, I have a single ticket left--only one. I +place it at your disposal, Adolphe. + +ADOLPHE. Thank you, but I surrender it to Henriette. + +HENRIETTE. But that wouldn't do? + +ADOLPHE. Why not? And I never go to the theatre anyhow, as I cannot +stand the heat. + +HENRIETTE. But you will come and take us home at least after the show is +over. + +ADOLPHE. If you insist on it. Otherwise Maurice has to come back here, +where we shall all be waiting for him. + +MAURICE. You can just as well take the trouble of meeting us. In fact, +I ask, I beg you to do so--And if you don't want to wait outside the +theatre, you can meet us at the Auberge des Adrets--That's settled then, +isn't it? + +ADOLPHE. Wait a little. You have a way of settling things to suit +yourself, before other people have a chance to consider them. + +MAURICE. What is there to consider--whether you are to see your lady +home or not? + +ADOLPHE. You never know what may be involved in a simple act like that, +but I have a sort of premonition. + +HENRIETTE. Hush, hush, hush! Don't talk of spooks while the sun is +shining. Let him come or not, as it pleases him. We can always find our +way back here. + +ADOLPHE. [Rising] Well, now I have to leave you--model, you know. +Good-bye, both of you. And good luck to you, Maurice. To-morrow you will +be out on the right side. Good-bye, Henriette. + +HENRIETTE. Do you really have to go? + +ADOLPHE. I must. + +MAURICE. Good-bye then. We'll meet later. + +(ADOLPHE goes out, saluting MME. CATHERINE in passing.) + +HENRIETTE. Think of it, that we should meet at last! + +MAURICE. Do you find anything remarkable in that? + +HENRIETTE. It looks as if it had to happen, for Adolphe has done his +best to prevent it. + +MAURICE. Has he? + +HENRIETTE. Oh, you must have noticed it. + +MAURICE. I have noticed it, but why should you mention it? + +HENRIETTE. I had to. + +MAURICE. No, and I don't have to tell you that I wanted to run away +through the kitchen in order to avoid meeting you and was stopped by a +guest who closed the door in front of me. + +HENRIETTE. Why do you tell me about it now? + +MAURICE. I don't know. + +(MME. CATHERINE upsets a number of glasses and bottles.) + +MAURICE. That's all right, Madame Catherine. There's nothing to be +afraid of. + +HENRIETTE. Was that meant as a signal or a warning? + +MAURICE. Probably both. + +HENRIETTE. Do they take me for a locomotive that has to have flagmen +ahead of it? + +MAURICE. And switchmen! The danger is always greatest at the switches. + +HENRIETTE. How nasty you can be! + +MME. CATHERINE. Monsieur Maurice isn't nasty at all. So far nobody has +been kinder than he to those that love him and trust in him. + +MAURICE. Sh, sh, sh! + +HENRIETTE. [To MAURICE] The old lady is rather impertinent. + +MAURICE. We can walk over to the boulevard, if you care to do so. + +HENRIETTE. With pleasure. This is not the place for me. I can just feel +their hatred clawing at me. [Goes out.] + +MAURICE. [Starts after her] Good-bye, Madame Catherine. + +MME. CATHERINE. A moment! May I speak a word to you, Monsieur Maurice? + +MAURICE. [Stops unwillingly] What is it? + +MME. CATHERINE. Don't do it! Don't do it! + +MAURICE. What? + +MME. CATHERINE. Don't do it! + +MAURICE. Don't be scared. This lady is not my kind, but she interests +me. Or hardly that even. + +MME. CATHERINE, Don't trust yourself! + +MAURICE. Yes, I do trust myself. Good-bye. [Goes out.] + +(Curtain.) + + + + +ACT II + + + + +FIRST SCENE + + +(The Auberge des Adrets: a cafe in sixteenth century style, with a +suggestion of stage effect. Tables and easy-chairs are scattered in +corners and nooks. The walls are decorated with armour and weapons. +Along the ledge of the wainscoting stand glasses and jugs.) + +(MAURICE and HENRIETTE are in evening dress and sit facing each other at +a table on which stands a bottle of champagne and three filled glasses. +The third glass is placed at that side of the table which is nearest the +background, and there an easy-chair is kept ready for the still missing +"third man.") + +MAURICE. [Puts his watch in front of himself on the table] If he doesn't +get here within the next five minutes, he isn't coming at all. And +suppose in the meantime we drink with his ghost. [Touches the third +glass with the rim of his own.] + +HENRIETTE. [Doing the same] Here's to you, Adolphe! + +MAURICE. He won't come. + +HENRIETTE. He will come. + +MAURICE. He won't. + +HENRIETTE. He will. + +MAURICE. What an evening! What a wonderful day! I can hardly grasp that +a new life has begun. Think only: the manager believes that I may count +on no less than one hundred thousand francs. I'll spend twenty thousand +on a villa outside the city. That leaves me eighty thousand. I won't be +able to take it all in until to-morrow, for I am tired, tired, tired. +[Sinks back into the chair] Have you ever felt really happy? + +HENRIETTE. Never. How does it feel? + +MAURICE. I don't quite know how to put it. I cannot express it, but I +seem chiefly to be thinking of the chagrin of my enemies. It isn't nice, +but that's the way it is. + +HENRIETTE. Is it happiness to be thinking of one's enemies? + +MAURICE. Why, the victor has to count his killed and wounded enemies in +order to gauge the extent of his victory. + +HENRIETTE. Are you as bloodthirsty as all that? + +MAURICE. Perhaps not. But when you have felt the pressure of other +people's heels on your chest for years, it must be pleasant to shake off +the enemy and draw a full breath at last. + +HENRIETTE. Don't you find it strange that you are sitting here, alone +with me, an insignificant girl practically unknown to you--and on an +evening like this, when you ought to have a craving to show yourself +like a triumphant hero to all the people, on the boulevards, in the big +restaurants? + +MAURICE. Of course, it's rather funny, but it feels good to be here, and +your company is all I care for. + +HENRIETTE. You don't look very hilarious. + +MAURICE. No, I feel rather sad, and I should like to weep a little. + +HENRIETTE. What is the meaning of that? + +MAURICE. It is fortune conscious of its own nothingness and waiting for +misfortune to appear. + +HENRIETTE. Oh my, how sad! What is it you are missing anyhow? + +MAURICE. I miss the only thing that gives value to life. + +HENRIETTE. So you love her no longer then? + +MAURICE. Not in the way I understand love. Do you think she has read +my play, or that she wants to see it? Oh, she is so good, so +self-sacrificing and considerate, but to go out with me for a night's +fun she would regard as sinful. Once I treated her to champagne, you +know, and instead of feeling happy over it, she picked up the wine list +to see what it cost. And when she read the price, she wept--wept because +Marion was in need of new stockings. It is beautiful, of course: it is +touching, if you please. But I can get no pleasure out of it. And I do +want a little pleasure before life runs out. So far I have had nothing +but privation, but now, now--life is beginning for me. [The clock +strikes twelve] Now begins a new day, a new era! + +HENRIETTE. Adolphe is not coming. + +MAURICE. No, now he won't, come. And now it is too late to go back to +the Cremerie. + +HENRIETTE. But they are waiting for you. + +MAURICE. Let them wait. They have made me promise to come, and I take +back my promise. Are you longing to go there? + +HENRIETTE. On the contrary! + +MAURICE. Will you keep me company then? + +HENRIETTE. With pleasure, if you care to have me. + +MAURICE. Otherwise I shouldn't be asking you. It is strange, you know, +that the victor's wreath seems worthless if you can't place it at the +feet of some woman--that everything seems worthless when you have not a +woman. + +HENRIETTE. You don't need to be without a woman--you? + +MAURICE. Well, that's the question. + +HENRIETTE. Don't you know that a man is irresistible in his hour of +success and fame? + +MAURICE. No, I don't know, for I have had no experience of it. + +HENRIETTE. You are a queer sort! At this moment, when you are the most +envied man in Paris, you sit here and brood. Perhaps your conscience +is troubling you because you have neglected that invitation to drink +chicory coffee with the old lady over at the milk shop? + +MAURICE. Yes, my conscience is troubling me on that score, and even here +I am aware of their resentment, their hurt feelings, their well-grounded +anger. My comrades in distress had the right to demand my presence this +evening. The good Madame Catherine had a privileged claim on my success, +from which a glimmer of hope was to spread over the poor fellows who +have not yet succeeded. And I have robbed them of their faith in me. I +can hear the vows they have been making: "Maurice will come, for he is +a good fellow; he doesn't despise us, and he never fails to keep his +word." Now I have made them forswear themselves. + +(While he is still speaking, somebody in the next room has begun to +play the finale of Beethoven's Sonata in D-minor (Op. 31, No. 3). +The allegretto is first played piano, then more forte, and at last +passionately, violently, with complete abandon.) + +MAURICE. Who can be playing at this time of the night? + +HENRIETTE. Probably some nightbirds of the same kind as we. But listen! +Your presentation of the case is not correct. Remember that Adolphe +promised to meet us here. We waited for him, and he failed to keep his +promise. So that you are not to blame-- + +MAURICE. You think so? While you are speaking, I believe you, but when +you stop, my conscience begins again. What have you in that package? + +HENRIETTE. Oh, it is only a laurel wreath that I meant to send up to the +stage, but I had no chance to do so. Let me give it to you now--it +is said to have a cooling effect on burning foreheads. [She rises and +crowns him with the wreath; then she kisses him on the forehead] Hail to +the victor! + +MAURICE. Don't! + +HENRIETTE. [Kneeling] Hail to the King! + +MAURICE. [Rising] No, now you scare me. + +HENRIETTE. You timid man! You of little faith who are afraid of fortune +even! Who robbed you of your self-assurance and turned you into a dwarf? + +MAURICE. A dwarf? Yes, you are right. I am not working up in the clouds, +like a giant, with crashing and roaring, but I forge my weapons deep +down in the silent heart of the mountain. You think that my modesty +shrinks before the victor's wreath. On the contrary, I despise it: it is +not enough for me. You think I am afraid of that ghost with its jealous +green eyes which sits over there and keeps watch on my feelings--the +strength of which you don't suspect. Away, ghost! [He brushes the third, +untouched glass off the table] Away with you, you superfluous third +person--you absent one who has lost your rights, if you ever had any. +You stayed away from the field of battle because you knew yourself +already beaten. As I crush this glass under my foot, so I will crush the +image of yourself which you have reared in a temple no longer yours. + +HENRIETTE. Good! That's the way! Well spoken, my hero! + +MAURICE. Now I have sacrificed my best friend, my most faithful helper, +on your altar, Astarte! Are you satisfied? + +HENRIETTE. Astarte is a pretty name, and I'll keep it--I think you love +me, Maurice. + +MAURICE. Of course I do--Woman of evil omen, you who stir up man's +courage with your scent of blood, whence do you come and where do you +lead me? I loved you before I saw you, for I trembled when I heard them +speak of you. And when I saw you in the doorway, your soul poured itself +into mine. And when you left, I could still feel your presence in my +arms. I wanted to flee from you, but something held me back, and this +evening we have been driven together as the prey is driven into the +hunter's net. Whose is the fault? Your friend's, who pandered for us! + +HENRIETTE. Fault or no fault: what does it matter, and what does it +mean?--Adolphe has been at fault in not bringing us together before. He +is guilty of having stolen from us two weeks of bliss, to which he had +no right himself. I am jealous of him on your behalf. I hate him because +he has cheated you out of your mistress. I should like to blot him from +the host of the living, and his memory with him--wipe him out of the +past even, make him unmade, unborn! + +MAURICE. Well, we'll bury him beneath our own memories. We'll cover him +with leaves and branches far out in the wild woods, and then we'll pile +stone on top of the mound so that he will never look up again. [Raising +his glass] Our fate is sealed. Woe unto us! What will come next? + +HENRIETTE. Next comes the new era--What have you in that package? + +MAURICE. I cannot remember. + +HENRIETTE. [Opens the package and takes out a tie and a pair of gloves] +That tie is a fright! It must have cost at least fifty centimes. + +MAURICE. [Snatching the things away from her] Don't you touch them! + +HENRIETTE. They are from her? + +MAURICE. Yes, they are. + +HENRIETTE. Give them to me. + +MAURICE. No, she's better than we, better than everybody else. + +HENRIETTE. I don't believe it. She is simply stupider and stingier. One +who weeps because you order champagne-- + +MAURICE. When the child was without stockings. Yes, she is a good woman. + +HENRIETTE. Philistine! You'll never be an artist. But I am an artist, +and I'll make a bust of you with a shopkeeper's cap instead of the +laurel wreath--Her name is Jeanne? + +MAURICE. How do you know? + +HENRIETTE. Why, that's the name of all housekeepers. + +MAURICE. Henriette! + +(HENRIETTE takes the tie and the gloves and throws them into the +fireplace.) + +MAURICE. [Weakly] Astarte, now you demand the sacrifice of women. You +shall have them, but if you ask for innocent children, too, then I'll +send you packing. + +HENRIETTE. Can you tell me what it is that binds you to me? + +MAURICE. If I only knew, I should be able to tear myself away. But I +believe it must be those qualities which you have and I lack. I believe +that the evil within you draws me with the irresistible lure of novelty. + +HENRIETTE. Have you ever committed a crime? + +MAURICE. No real one. Have you? + +HENRIETTE. Yes. + +MAURICE. Well, how did you find it? + +HENRIETTE. It was greater than to perform a good deed, for by that we +are placed on equality with others; it was greater than to perform some +act of heroism, for by that we are raised above others and rewarded. +That crime placed me outside and beyond life, society, and my +fellow-beings. Since then I am living only a partial life, a sort of +dream life, and that's why reality never gets a hold on me. + +MAURICE. What was it you did? + +HENRIETTE. I won't tell, for then you would get scared again. + +MAURICE. Can you never be found out? + +HENRIETTE. Never. But that does not prevent me from seeing, frequently, +the five stones at the Place de Roquette, where the scaffold used to +stand; and for this reason I never dare to open a pack of cards, as I +always turn up the five-spot of diamonds. + +MAURICE. Was it that kind of a crime? + +HENRIETTE. Yes, it was that kind. + +MAURICE. Of course, it's horrible, but it is interesting. Have you no +conscience? + +HENRIETTE. None, but I should be grateful if you would talk of something +else. + +MAURICE. Suppose we talk of--love? + +HENRIETTE. Of that you don't talk until it is over. + +MAURICE. Have you been in love with Adolphe? + +HENRIETTE. I don't know. The goodness of his nature drew me like some +beautiful, all but vanished memory of childhood. Yet there was much +about his person that offended my eye, so that I had to spend a long +time retouching, altering, adding, subtracting, before I could make a +presentable figure of him. When he talked, I could notice that he had +learned from you, and the lesson was often badly digested and awkwardly +applied. You can imagine then how miserable the copy must appear now, +when I am permitted to study the original. That's why he was afraid of +having us two meet; and when it did happen, he understood at once that +his time was up. + +MAURICE. Poor Adolphe! + +HENRIETTE. I feel sorry for him, too, as I know he must be suffering +beyond all bounds-- + +MAURICE. Sh! Somebody is coming. + +HENRIETTE. I wonder if it could be he? + +MAURICE. That would be unbearable. + +HENRIETTE. No, it isn't he, but if it had been, how do you think the +situation would have shaped itself? + +MAURICE. At first he would have been a little sore at you because he had +made a mistake in regard to the meeting-place--and tried to find us in +several other cafes--but his soreness would have changed into pleasure +at finding us--and seeing that we had not deceived him. And in the joy +at having wronged us by his suspicions, he would love both of us. And so +it would make him happy to notice that we had become such good friends. +It had always been his dream--hm! he is making the speech now--his dream +that the three of us should form a triumvirate that could set the world +a great example of friendship asking for nothing--"Yes, I trust you, +Maurice, partly because you are my friend, and partly because your +feelings are tied up elsewhere." + +HENRIETTE. Bravo! You must have been in a similar situation before, +or you couldn't give such a lifelike picture of it. Do you know that +Adolphe is just that kind of a third person who cannot enjoy his +mistress without having his friend along? + +MAURICE. That's why I had to be called in to entertain you--Hush! There +is somebody outside--It must be he. + +HENRIETTE. No, don't you know these are the hours when ghosts walk, and +then you can see so many things, and hear them also. To keep awake at +night, when you ought to be sleeping, has for me the same charm as a +crime: it is to place oneself above and beyond the laws of nature. + +MAURICE. But the punishment is fearful--I am shivering or quivering, +with cold or with fear. + +HENRIETTE. [Wraps her opera cloak about him] Put this on. It will make +you warm. + +MAURICE. That's nice. It is as if I were inside of your skin, as if my +body had been melted up by lack of sleep and were being remoulded in +your shape. I can feel the moulding process going on. But I am also +growing a new soul, new thoughts, and here, where your bosom has left an +impression, I can feel my own beginning to bulge. + +(During this entire scene, the pianist in the next room has been +practicing the Sonata in D-minor, sometimes pianissimo, sometimes wildly +fortissimo; now and then he has kept silent for a little while, and at +other times nothing has been heard but a part of the finale: bars 96 to +107.) + +MAURICE. What a monster, to sit there all night practicing on the piano. +It gives me a sick feeling. Do you know what I propose? Let us drive out +to the Bois de Boulogne and take breakfast in the Pavilion, and see the +sun rise over the lakes. + +HENRIETTE. Bully! + +MAURICE. But first of all I must arrange to have my mail and the morning +papers sent out by messenger to the Pavilion. Tell me, Henriette: shall +we invite Adolphe? + +HENRIETTE. Oh, that's going too far! But why not? The ass can also be +harnessed to the triumphal chariot. Let him come. [They get up.] + +MAURICE. [Taking off the cloak] Then I'll ring. + +HENRIETTE. Wait a moment! [Throws herself into his arms.] + +(Curtain.) + + + + +SECOND SCENE + + +(A large, splendidly furnished restaurant room in the Bois de Boulogne. +It is richly carpeted and full of mirrors, easy-chairs, and divans. +There are glass doors in the background, and beside them windows +overlooking the lakes. In the foreground a table is spread, with flowers +in the centre, bowls full of fruit, wine in decanters, oysters on +platters, many different kinds of wine glasses, and two lighted +candelabra. On the right there is a round table full of newspapers and +telegrams.) + +(MAURICE and HENRIETTE are sitting opposite each other at this small +table.) + +(The sun is just rising outside.) + +MAURICE. There is no longer any doubt about it. The newspapers tell me +it is so, and these telegrams congratulate me on my success. This is the +beginning of a new life, and my fate is wedded to yours by this night, +when you were the only one to share my hopes and my triumph. From your +hand I received the laurel, and it seems to me as if everything had come +from you. + +HENRIETTE. What a wonderful night! Have we been dreaming, or is this +something we have really lived through? + +MAURICE. [Rising] And what a morning after such a night! I feel as if +it were the world's first day that is now being illumined by the rising +sun. Only this minute was the earth created and stripped of those white +films that are now floating off into space. There lies the Garden of +Eden in the rosy light of dawn, and here is the first human couple--Do +you know, I am so happy I could cry at the thought that all mankind is +not equally happy--Do you hear that distant murmur as of ocean waves +beating against a rocky shore, as of winds sweeping through a forest? +Do you know what it is? It is Paris whispering my name. Do you see the +columns of smoke that rise skyward in thousands and tens of thousands? +They are the fires burning on my altars, and if that be not so, then +it must become so, for I will it. At this moment all the telegraph +instruments of Europe are clicking out my name. The Oriental Express is +carrying the newspapers to the Far East, toward the rising sun; and the +ocean steamers are carrying them to the utmost West. The earth is mine, +and for that reason it is beautiful. Now I should like to have wings for +us two, so that we might rise from here and fly far, far away, before +anybody can soil my happiness, before envy has a chance to wake me out +of my dream--for it is probably a dream! + +HENRIETTE. [Holding out her hand to him] Here you can feel that you are +not dreaming. + +MAURICE. It is not a dream, but it has been one. As a poor young man, +you know, when I was walking in the woods down there, and looked up +to this Pavilion, it looked to me like a fairy castle, and always my +thoughts carried me up to this room, with the balcony outside and the +heavy curtains, as to a place of supreme bliss. To be sitting here in +company with a beloved woman and see the sun rise while the candles were +still burning in the candelabra: that was the most audacious dream of my +youth. Now it has come true, and now I have no more to ask of life--Do +you want to die now, together with me? + +HENRIETTE. No, you fool! Now I want to begin living. + +MAURICE. [Rising] To live: that is to suffer! Now comes reality. I can +hear his steps on the stairs. He is panting with alarm, and his heart is +beating with dread of having lost what it holds most precious. Can +you believe me if I tell you that Adolphe is under this roof? Within a +minute he will be standing in the middle of this floor. + +HENRIETTE. [Alarmed] It was a stupid trick to ask him to come here, and +I am already regretting it--Well, we shall see anyhow if your forecast +of the situation proves correct. + +MAURICE. Oh, it is easy to be mistaken about a person's feelings. + +(The HEAD WAITER enters with a card.) + +MAURICE. Ask the gentleman to step in. [To HENRIETTE] I am afraid we'll +regret this. + +HENRIETTE. Too late to think of that now--Hush! + +(ADOLPHE enters, pale and hollow-eyed.) + +MAURICE. [Trying to speak unconcernedly] There you are! What became of +you last night? + +ADOLPHE. I looked for you at the Hotel des Arrets and waited a whole +hour. + +MAURICE. So you went to the wrong place. We were waiting several hours +for you at the Auberge des Adrets, and we are still waiting for you, as +you see. + +ADOLPHE. [Relieved] Thank heaven! + +HENRIETTE. Good morning, Adolphe. You are always expecting the worst and +worrying yourself needlessly. I suppose you imagined that we wanted to +avoid your company. And though you see that we sent for you, you are +still thinking yourself superfluous. + +ADOLPHE. Pardon me: I was wrong, but the night was dreadful. + +(They sit down. Embarrassed silence follows.) + +HENRIETTE. [To ADOLPHE] Well, are you not going to congratulate Maurice +on his great success? + +ADOLPHE. Oh, yes! Your success is the real thing, and envy itself cannot +deny it. Everything is giving way before you, and even I have a sense of +my own smallness in your presence. + +MAURICE. Nonsense!--Henriette, are you not going to offer Adolphe a +glass of wine? + +ADOLPHE. Thank you, not for me--nothing at all! + +HENRIETTE. [To ADOLPHE] What's the matter with you? Are you ill? + +ADOLPHE. Not yet, but-- + +HENRIETTE. Your eyes-- + +ADOLPHE. What of them? + +MAURICE. What happened at the Cremerie last night? I suppose they are +angry with me? + +ADOLPHE. Nobody is angry with you, but your absence caused a depression +which it hurt me to watch. But nobody was angry with you, believe me. +Your friends understood, and they regarded your failure to come with +sympathetic forbearance. Madame Catherine herself defended you and +proposed your health. We all rejoiced in your success as if it had been +our own. + +HENRIETTE. Well, those are nice people! What good friends you have, +Maurice. + +MAURICE. Yes, better than I deserve. + +ADOLPHE. Nobody has better friends than he deserves, and you are a man +greatly blessed in his friends--Can't you feel how the air is softened +to-day by all the kind thoughts and wishes that stream toward you from a +thousand breasts? + +(MAURICE rises in order to hide his emotion.) + +ADOLPHE. From a thousand breasts that you have rid of the nightmare +that had been crushing them during a lifetime. Humanity had been +slandered--and you have exonerated it: that's why men feel grateful +toward you. To-day they are once more holding their heads high and +saying: You see, we are a little better than our reputation after all. +And that thought makes them better. + +(HENRIETTE tries to hide her emotion.) + +ADOLPHE. Am I in the way? Just let me warm myself a little in your +sunshine, Maurice, and then I'll go. + +MAURICE. Why should you go when you have only just arrived? + +ADOLPHE. Why? Because I have seen what I need not have seen; because I +know now that my hour is past. [Pause] That you sent for me, I take +as an expression of thoughtfulness, a notice of what has happened, a +frankness that hurts less than deceit. You hear that I think well of my +fellow-beings, and this I have learned from you, Maurice. [Pause] But, +my friend, a few moments ago I passed through the Church of St. Germain, +and there I saw a woman and a child. I am not wishing that you had seen +them, for what has happened cannot be altered, but if you gave a thought +or a word to them before you set them adrift on the waters of the great +city, then you could enjoy your happiness undisturbed. And now I bid you +good-by. + +HENRIETTE. Why must you go? + +ADOLPHE. And you ask that? Do you want me to tell you? + +HENRIETTE. No, I don't. + +ADOLPHE. Good-by then! [Goes out.] + +MAURICE. The Fall: and lo! "they knew that they were naked." + +HENRIETTE. What a difference between this scene and the one we imagined! +He is better than we. + +MAURICE. It seems to me now as if all the rest were better than we. + +HENRIETTE. Do you see that the sun has vanished behind clouds, and that +the woods have lost their rose colour? + +MAURICE. Yes, I see, and the blue lake has turned black. Let us flee to +some place where the sky is always blue and the trees are always green. + +HENRIETTE. Yes, let us--but without any farewells. + +MAURICE. No, with farewells. + +HENRIETTE. We were to fly. You spoke of wings--and your feet are of +lead. I am not jealous, but if you go to say farewell and get two pairs +of arms around your neck--then you can't tear yourself away. + +MAURICE. Perhaps you are right, but only one pair of little arms is +needed to hold me fast. + +HENRIETTE. It is the child that holds you then, and not the woman? + +MAURICE. It is the child. + +HENRIETTE. The child! Another woman's child! And for the sake of it I am +to suffer. Why must that child block the way where I want to pass, and +must pass? + +MAURICE. Yes, why? It would be better if it had never existed. + +HENRIETTE. [Walks excitedly back and forth] Indeed! But now it does +exist. Like a rock on the road, a rock set firmly in the ground, +immovable, so that it upsets the carriage. + +MAURICE. The triumphal chariot!--The ass is driven to death, but the +rock remains. Curse it! [Pause.] + +HENRIETTE. There is nothing to do. + +MAURICE. Yes, we must get married, and then our child will make us +forget the other one. + +HENRIETTE. This will kill this! + +MAURICE. Kill! What kind of word is that? + +HENRIETTE. [Changing tone] Your child will kill our love. + +MAURICE. No, girl, our love will kill whatever stands in its way, but it +will not be killed. + +HENRIETTE. [Opens a deck of cards lying on the mantlepiece] Look at it! +Five-spot of diamonds--the scaffold! Can it be possible that our fates +are determined in advance? That our thoughts are guided as if through +pipes to the spot for which they are bound, without chance for us to +stop them? But I don't want it, I don't want it!--Do you realise that I +must go to the scaffold if my crime should be discovered? + +MAURICE. Tell me about your crime. Now is the time for it. + +HENRIETTE. No, I should regret it afterward, and you would despise +me--no, no, no!--Have you ever heard that a person could be hated to +death? Well, my father incurred the hatred of my mother and my sisters, +and he melted away like wax before a fire. Ugh! Let us talk of something +else. And, above all, let us get away. The air is poisoned here. +To-morrow your laurels will be withered, the triumph will be forgotten, +and in a week another triumphant hero will hold the public attention. +Away from here, to work for new victories! But first of all, Maurice, +you must embrace your child and provide for its immediate future. You +don't have to see the mother at all. + +MAURICE. Thank you! Your good heart does you honour, and I love you +doubly when you show the kindness you generally hide. + +HENRIETTE. And then you go to the Cremerie and say good-by to the old +lady and your friends. Leave no unsettled business behind to make your +mind heavy on our trip. + +MAURICE. I'll clear up everything, and to-night we meet at the railroad +station. + +HENRIETTE. Agreed! And then: away from here--away toward the sea and the +sun! + +(Curtain.) + + + + +ACT III + + + + +FIRST SCENE + + +(In the Cremerie. The gas is lit. MME. CATHERINE is seated at the +counter, ADOLPHE at a table.) + +MME. CATHERINE. Such is life, Monseiur Adolphe. But you young ones are +always demanding too much, and then you come here and blubber over it +afterward. + +ADOLPHE. No, it isn't that. I reproach nobody, and I am as fond as ever +of both of them. But there is one thing that makes me sick at heart. +You see, I thought more of Maurice than of anybody else; so much that I +wouldn't have grudged him anything that could give him pleasure--but now +I have lost him, and it hurts me worse than the loss of her. I have +lost both of them, and so my loneliness is made doubly painful. And then +there is still something else which I have not yet been able to clear +up. + +MME. CATHERINE. Don't brood so much. Work and divert yourself. Now, for +instance, do you ever go to church? + +ADOLPHE. What should I do there? + +MME. CATHERINE. Oh, there's so much to look at, and then there is the +music. There is nothing commonplace about it, at least. + +ADOLPHE. Perhaps not. But I don't belong to that fold, I guess, for it +never stirs me to any devotion. And then, Madame Catherine, faith is a +gift, they tell me, and I haven't got it yet. + +MME. CATHERINE. Well, wait till you get it--But what is this I heard a +while ago? Is it true that you have sold a picture in London for a high +price, and that you have got a medal? + +ADOLPHE. Yes, it's true. + +MME. CATHERINE. Merciful heavens!--and not a word do you say about it? + +ADOLPHE. I am afraid of fortune, and besides it seems almost worthless +to me at this moment. I am afraid of it as of a spectre: it brings +disaster to speak of having seen it. + +MME. CATHERINE. You're a queer fellow, and that's what you have always +been. + +ADOLPHE. Not queer at all, but I have seen so much misfortune come +in the wake of fortune, and I have seen how adversity brings out true +friends, while none but false ones appear in the hour of success--You +asked me if I ever went to church, and I answered evasively. This +morning I stepped into the Church of St. Germain without really +knowing why I did so. It seemed as if I were looking for somebody in +there--somebody to whom I could silently offer my gratitude. But I found +nobody. Then I dropped a gold coin in the poor-box. It was all I could +get out of my church-going, and that was rather commonplace, I should +say. + +MME. CATHERINE. It was always something; and then it was fine to think +of the poor after having heard good news. + +ADOLPHE. It was neither fine nor anything else: it was something I did +because I couldn't help myself. But something more occurred while I +was in the church. I saw Maurice's girl friend, Jeanne, and her child. +Struck down, crushed by his triumphal chariot, they seemed aware of the +full extent of their misfortune. + +MME. CATHERINE. Well, children, I don't know in what kind of shape +you keep your consciences. But how a decent fellow, a careful and +considerate man like Monsieur Maurice, can all of a sudden desert a +woman and her child, that is something I cannot explain. + +ADOLPHE. Nor can I explain it, and he doesn't seem to understand it +himself. I met them this morning, and everything appeared quite natural +to them, quite proper, as if they couldn't imagine anything else. It +was as if they had been enjoying the satisfaction of a good deed or the +fulfilment of a sacred duty. There are things, Madame Catherine, that +we cannot explain, and for this reason it is not for us to judge. And +besides, you saw how it happened. Maurice felt the danger in the air. +I foresaw it and tried to prevent their meeting. Maurice wanted to run +away from it, but nothing helped. Why, it was as if a plot had been laid +by some invisible power, and as if they had been driven by guile into +each other's arms. Of course, I am disqualified in this case, but I +wouldn't hesitate to pronounce a verdict of "not guilty." + +MME. CATHERINE. Well, now, to be able to forgive as you do, that's what +I call religion. + +ADOLPHE. Heavens, could it be that I am religious without knowing it. + +MME. CATHERINE. But then, to LET oneself be driven or tempted into evil, +as Monsieur Maurice has done, means weakness or bad character. And if +you feel your strength failing you, then you ask for help, and then you +get it. But he was too conceited to do that--Who is this coming? The +Abbe, I think. + +ADOLPHE. What does he want here? + +ABBE. [Enters] Good evening, madame. Good evening, Monsieur. + +MME. CATHERINE. Can I be of any service? + +ABBE. Has Monsieur Maurice, the author, been here to-day? + +MME. CATHERINE. Not to-day. His play has just been put on, and that is +probably keeping him busy. + +ABBE. I have--sad news to bring him. Sad in several respects. + +MME. CATHERINE. May I ask of what kind? + +ABBE. Yes, it's no secret. The daughter he had with that girl, Jeanne, +is dead. + +MME. CATHERINE. Dead! + +ADOLPHE. Marion dead! + +ABBE. Yes, she died suddenly this morning without any previous illness. + +MME. CATHERINE. O Lord, who can tell Thy ways! + +ABBE. The mother's grief makes it necessary that Monsieur Maurice +look after her, so we must try to find him. But first a question in +confidence: do you know whether Monsieur Maurice was fond of the child, +or was indifferent to it? + +MME. CATHERINE. If he was fond of Marion? Why, all of us know how he +loved her. + +ADOLPHE. There's no doubt about that. + +ABBE. I am glad to hear it, and it settles the matter so far as I am +concerned. + +MME. CATHERINE. Has there been any doubt about it? + +ABBE. Yes, unfortunately. It has even been rumoured in the neighbourhood +that he had abandoned the child and its mother in order to go away with +a strange woman. In a few hours this rumour has grown into definite +accusations, and at the same time the feeling against him has risen +to such a point that his life is threatened and he is being called a +murderer. + +MME. CATHERINE. Good God, what is THIS? What does it mean? + +ABBE. Now I'll tell you my opinion--I am convinced that the man is +innocent on this score, and the mother feels as certain about it as I +do. But appearances are against Monsieur Maurice, and I think he will +find it rather hard to clear himself when the police come to question +him. + +ADOLPHE. Have the police got hold of the matter? + +ABBE. Yea, the police have had to step in to protect him against all +those ugly rumours and the rage of the people. Probably the Commissaire +will be here soon. + +MME. CATHERINE. [To ADOLPHE] There you see what happens when a man +cannot tell the difference between good and evil, and when he trifles +with vice. God will punish! + +ADOLPHE. Then he is more merciless than man. + +ABBE. What do you know about that? + +ADOLPHE. Not very much, but I keep an eye on what happens-- + +ABBE. And you understand it also? + +ADOLPHE. Not yet perhaps. + +ABBE. Let us look more closely at the matter--Oh, here comes the +Commissaire. + +COMMISSAIRE. [Enters] Gentlemen--Madame Catherine--I have to trouble you +for a moment with a few questions concerning Monsieur Maurice. As you +have probably heard, he has become the object of a hideous rumour, +which, by the by, I don't believe in. + +MME. CATHERINE. None of us believes in it either. + +COMMISSAIRE. That strengthens my own opinion, but for his own sake I +must give him a chance to defend himself. + +ABBE. That's right, and I guess he will find justice, although it may +come hard. + +COMMISSAIRE. Appearances are very much against him, but I have +seen guiltless people reach the scaffold before their innocence was +discovered. Let me tell you what there is against him. The little girl, +Marion, being left alone by her mother, was secretly visited by the +father, who seems to have made sure of the time when the child was to +be found alone. Fifteen minutes after his visit the mother returned home +and found the child dead. All this makes the position of the accused +man very unpleasant--The post-mortem examination brought out no signs +of violence or of poison, but the physicians admit the existence of +new poisons that leave no traces behind them. To me all this is mere +coincidence of the kind I frequently come across. But here's something +that looks worse. Last night Monsieur Maurice was seen at the Auberge +des Adrets in company with a strange lady. According to the waiter, they +were talking about crimes. The Place de Roquette and the scaffold were +both mentioned. A queer topic of conversation for a pair of lovers of +good breeding and good social position! But even this may be passed +over, as we know by experience that people who have been drinking and +losing a lot of sleep seem inclined to dig up all the worst that lies at +the bottom of their souls. Far more serious is the evidence given by the +head waiter as to their champagne breakfast in the Bois de Boulogne this +morning. He says that he heard them wish the life out of a child. The +man is said to have remarked that, "It would be better if it had never +existed." To which the woman replied: "Indeed! But now it does exist." +And as they went on talking, these words occurred: "This will kill +this!" And the answer was: "Kill! What kind of word is that?" And also: +"The five-spot of diamonds, the scaffold, the Place de Roquette." All +this, you see, will be hard to get out of, and so will the foreign +journey planned for this evening. These are serious matters. + +ADOLPHE. He is lost! + +MME. CATHERINE. That's a dreadful story. One doesn't know what to +believe. + +ABBE. This is not the work of man. God have mercy on him! + +ADOLPHE. He is in the net, and he will never get out of it. + +MME. CATHERINE. He had no business to get in. + +ADOLPHE. Do you begin to suspect him also, Madame Catherine? + +MME. CATHERINE. Yes and no. I have got beyond having an opinion in this +matter. Have you not seen angels turn into devils just as you turn your +hand, and then become angels again? + +COMMISSAIRE. It certainly does look queer. However, we'll have to wait +and hear what explanations he can give. No one will be judged unheard. +Good evening, gentlemen. Good evening, Madame Catherine. [Goes out.] + +ABBE. This is not the work of man. + +ADOLPHE. No, it looks as if demons had been at work for the undoing of +man. + +ABBE. It is either a punishment for secret misdeeds, or it is a terrible +test. + +JEANNE. [Enters, dressed in mourning] Good evening. Pardon me for +asking, but have you seen Monsieur Maurice? + +MME. CATHERINE. No, madame, but I think he may be here any minute. You +haven't met him then since-- + +JEANNE. Not since this morning. + +MME. CATHERINE. Let me tell you that I share in your great sorrow. + +JEANNE. Thank you, madame. [To the ABBE] So you are here, Father. + +ABBE. Yes, my child. I thought I might be of some use to you. And it was +fortunate, as it gave me a chance to speak to the Commissaire. + +JEANNE. The Commissaire! He doesn't suspect Maurice also, does he? + +ABBE. No, he doesn't, and none of us here do. But appearances are +against him in a most appalling manner. + +JEANNE. You mean on account of the talk the waiters overheard--it means +nothing to me, who has heard such things before when Maurice had had +a few drinks. Then it is his custom to speculate on crimes and their +punishment. Besides it seems to have been the woman in his company who +dropped the most dangerous remarks. I should like to have a look into +that woman's eyes. + +ADOLPHE. My dear Jeanne, no matter how much harm that woman may have +done you, she did nothing with evil intention--in fact, she had no +intention whatever, but just followed the promptings of her nature. I +know her to be a good soul and one who can very well bear being looked +straight in the eye. + +JEANNE. Your judgment in this matter, Adolphe, has great value to me, +and I believe what you say. It means that I cannot hold anybody but +myself responsible for what has happened. It is my carelessness that is +now being punished. [She begins to cry.] + +ABBE. Don't accuse yourself unjustly! I know you, and the serious spirit +in which you have regarded your motherhood. That your assumption of this +responsibility had not been sanctioned by religion and the civil law was +not your fault. No, we are here facing something quite different. + +ADOLPHE. What then? + +ABBE. Who can tell? + +(HENRIETTE enters, dressed in travelling suit.) + +ADOLPHE. [Rises with an air of determination and goes to meet HENRIETTE] +You here? + +HENRIETTE. Yes, where is Maurice? + +ADOLPHE. Do you know--or don't you? + +HENRIETTE. I know everything. Excuse me, Madame Catherine, but I was +ready to start and absolutely had to step in here a moment. [To ADOLPHE] +Who is that woman?--Oh! + +(HENRIETTE and JEANNE stare at each other.) + +(EMILE appears in the kitchen door.) + +HENRIETTE. [To JEANNE] I ought to say something, but it matters very +little, for anything I can say must sound like an insult or a mockery. +But if I ask you simply to believe that I share your deep sorrow as much +as anybody standing closer to you, then you must not turn away from me. +You mustn't, for I deserve your pity if not your forbearance. [Holds out +her hand.] + +JEANNE. [Looks hard at her] I believe you now--and in the next moment I +don't. [Takes HENRIETTE'S hand.] + +HENRIETTE. [Kisses JEANNE'S hand] Thank you! + +JEANNE. [Drawing back her hand] Oh, don't! I don't deserve it! I don't +deserve it! + +ABBE. Pardon me, but while we are gathered here and peace seems to +prevail temporarily at least, won't you, Mademoiselle Henriette, shed +some light into all the uncertainty and darkness surrounding the main +point of accusation? I ask you, as a friend among friends, to tell us +what you meant with all that talk about killing, and crime, and the +Place de Roquette. That your words had no connection with the death +of the child, we have reason to believe, but it would give us added +assurance to hear what you were really talking about. Won't you tell us? + +HENRIETTE. [After a pause] That I cannot tell! No, I cannot! + +ADOLPHE. Henriette, do tell! Give us the word that will relieve us all. + +HENRIETTE. I cannot! Don't ask me! + +ABBE. This is not the work of man! + +HENRIETTE. Oh, that this moment had to come! And in this manner! [To +JEANNE] Madame, I swear that I am not guilty of your child's death. Is +that enough? + +JEANNE. Enough for us, but not for Justice. + +HENRIETTE. Justice! If you knew how true your words are! + +ABBE. [To HENRIETTE] And if you knew what you were saying just now! + +HENRIETTE. Do you know that better than I? + +ABBE. Yes, I do. + +(HENRIETTE looks fixedly at the ABBE.) + +ABBE. Have no fear, for even if I guess your secret, it will not be +exposed. Besides, I have nothing to do with human justice, but a great +deal with divine mercy. + +MAURICE. [Enters hastily, dressed for travelling. He doesn't look at the +others, who are standing in the background, but goes straight up to +the counter, where MME. CATHERINE is sitting.] You are not angry at me, +Madame Catherine, because I didn't show up. I have come now to apologise +to you before I start for the South at eight o'clock this evening. + +(MME. CATHERINE is too startled to say a word.) + +MAURICE. Then you are angry at me? [Looks around] What does all this +mean? Is it a dream, or what is it? Of course, I can see that it is all +real, but it looks like a wax cabinet--There is Jeanne, looking like a +statue and dressed in black--And Henriette looking like a corpse--What +does it mean? + +(All remain silent.) + +MAURICE. Nobody answers. It must mean something dreadful. [Silence] +But speak, please! Adolphe, you are my friend, what is it? [Pointing to +EMILE] And there is a detective! + +ADOLPHE. [Comes forward] You don't know then? + +MAURICE. Nothing at all. But I must know! + +ADOLPHE. Well, then--Marion is dead. + +MAURICE. Marion--dead? + +ADOLPHE. Yes, she died this morning. + +MAURICE. [To JEANNE] So that's why you are in mourning. Jeanne, Jeanne, +who has done this to us? + +JEANNE. He who holds life and death in his hand. + +MAURICE. But I saw her looking well and happy this morning. How did +it happen? Who did it? Somebody must have done it? [His eyes seek +HENRIETTE.] + +ADOLPHE. Don't look for the guilty one here, for there is none to +he found. Unfortunately the police have turned their suspicion in a +direction where none ought to exist. + +MAURICE. What direction is that? + +ADOLPHE. Well--you may as well know that, your reckless talk last +night and this morning has placed you in a light that is anything but +favourable. + +MAURICE, So they were listening to us. Let me see, what were we +saying--I remember!--Then I am lost! + +ADOLPHE. But if you explain your thoughtless words we will believe you. + +MAURICE. I cannot! And I will not! I shall be sent to prison, but it +doesn't matter. Marion is dead! Dead! And I have killed her! + +(General consternation.) + +ADOLPHE. Think of what you are saying! Weigh your words! Do you realise +what you said just now? + +MAURICE. What did I say? + +ADOLPHE. You said that you had killed Marion. + +MAURICE. Is there a human being here who could believe me a murderer, +and who could hold me capable of taking my own child's life? You who +know me, Madame Catherine, tell me: do you believe, can you believe-- + +MME. CATHERINE. I don't know any longer what to believe. What the heart +thinketh the tongue speaketh. And your tongue has spoken evil words. + +MAURICE. She doesn't believe me! + +ADOLPHE. But explain your words, man! Explain what you meant by saying +that "your love would kill everything that stood in its way." + +MAURICE. So they know that too--Are you willing to explain it, +Henriette? + +HENRIETTE. No, I cannot do that. + +ABBE. There is something wrong behind all this and you have lost our +sympathy, my friend. A while ago I could have sworn that you were +innocent, and I wouldn't do that now. + +MAURICE. [To JEANNE] What you have to say means more to me than anything +else. JEANNE. [Coldly] Answer a question first: who was it you cursed +during that orgie out there? + +MAURICE. Have I done that too? Maybe. Yes, I am guilty, and yet I am +guiltless. Let me go away from here, for I am ashamed of myself, and I +have done more wrong than I can forgive myself. + +HENRIETTE. [To ADOLPHE] Go with him and see that he doesn't do himself +any harm. + +ADOLPHE. Shall I--? + +HENRIETTE. Who else? + +ADOLPHE. [Without bitterness] You are nearest to it--Sh! A carriage is +stopping outside. + +MME. CATHERINE. It's the Commissaire. Well, much as I have seen of life, +I could never have believed that success and fame were such short-lived +things. + +MAURICE. [To HENRIETTE] From the triumphal chariot to the patrol wagon! + +JEANNE. [Simply] And the ass--who was that? + +ADOLPHE. Oh, that must have been me. + +COMMISSAIRE. [Enters with a paper in his hand] A summons to Police +Headquarters--to-night, at once--for Monsieur Maurice Gerard--and for +Mademoiselle Henrietta Mauclerc--both here? + +MAURICE and HENRIETTE. Yes. + +MAURICE. Is this an arrest? + +COMMISSAIRE. Not yet. Only a summons. + +MAURICE. And then? + +COMMISSAIRE. We don't know yet. + +(MAURICE and HENRIETTE go toward the door.) + +MAURICE. Good-bye to all! + +(Everybody shows emotion. The COMMISSAIRE, MAURICE, and HENRIETTE go +out.) + +EMILE. [Enters and goes up to JEANNE] Now I'll take you home, sister. + +JEANNE. And what do you think of all this? + +EMILE. The man is innocent. + +ABBE. But as I see it, it is, and must always be, something despicable +to break one's promise, and it becomes unpardonable when a woman and her +child are involved. + +EMILE. Well, I should rather feel that way, too, now when it concerns +my own sister, but unfortunately I am prevented from throwing the first +stone because I have done the same thing myself. + +ABBE. Although I am free from blame in that respect, I am not throwing +any stones either, but the act condemns itself and is punished by its +consequences. + +JEANNE. Pray for him! For both of them! + +ABBE. No, I'll do nothing of the kind, for it is an impertinence to +want to change the counsels of the Lord. And what has happened here is, +indeed, not the work of man. + +(Curtain.) + + + + +SECOND SCENE + + +(The Auberge des Adrets. ADOLPHE and HENRIETTE are seated at the same +table where MAURICE and HENRIETTE were sitting in the second act. A cup +of coffee stands in front of ADOLPHE. HENRIETTE has ordered nothing.) + +ADOLPHE. You believe then that he will come here? + +HENRIETTE. I am sure. He was released this noon for lack of evidence, +but he didn't want to show himself in the streets before it was dark. + +ADOLPHE. Poor fellow! Oh, I tell you, life seems horrible to me since +yesterday. + +HENRIETTE. And what about me? I am afraid to live, dare hardly breathe, +dare hardly think even, since I know that somebody is spying not only on +my words but on my thoughts. + +ADOLPHE. So it was here you sat that night when I couldn't find you? + +HENRIETTE. Yes, but don't talk of it. I could die from shame when I +think of it. Adolphe, you are made of a different, a better, stuff than +he or I--- + +ADOLPHE. Sh, sh, sh! + +HENRIETTE. Yes, indeed! And what was it that made me stay here? I was +lazy; I was tired; his success intoxicated me and bewitched me--I cannot +explain it. But if you had come, it would never have happened. And +to-day you are great, and he is small--less than the least of all. +Yesterday he had one hundred thousand francs. To-day he has nothing, +because his play has been withdrawn. And public opinion will never +excuse him, for his lack of faith will be judged as harshly as if he +were the murderer, and those that see farthest hold that the child died +from sorrow, so that he was responsible for it anyhow. + +ADOLPHE. You know what my thoughts are in this matter, Henriette, but +I should like to know that both of you are spotless. Won't you tell me +what those dreadful words of yours meant? It cannot be a chance that +your talk in a festive moment like that dealt so largely with killing +and the scaffold. + +HENRIETTE. It was no chance. It was something that had to be said, +something I cannot tell you--probably because I have no right to appear +spotless in your eyes, seeing that I am not spotless. + +ADOLPHE. All this is beyond me. + +HENRIETTE. Let us talk of something else--Do you believe there are many +unpunished criminals at large among us, some of whom may even be our +intimate friends? + +ADOLPHE. [Nervously] Why? What do you mean? + +HENRIETTE. Don't you believe that every human being at some time or +another has been guilty of some kind of act which would fall under the +law if it were discovered? + +ADOLPHE. Yes, I believe that is true, but no evil act escapes being +punished by one's own conscience at least. [Rises and unbuttons his +coat] And--nobody is really good who has not erred. [Breathing heavily] +For in order to know how to forgive, one must have been in need of +forgiveness--I had a friend whom we used to regard as a model man. He +never spoke a hard word to anybody; he forgave everything and everybody; +and he suffered insults with a strange satisfaction that we couldn't +explain. At last, late in life, he gave me his secret in a single word: +I am a penitent! [He sits down again.] + +(HENRIETTE remains silent, looking at him with surprise.) + +ADOLPHE. [As if speaking to himself] There are crimes not mentioned in +the Criminal Code, and these are the worse ones, for they have to be +punished by ourselves, and no judge could be more severe than we are +against our own selves. + +HENRIETTE. [After a pause] Well, that friend of yours, did he find +peace? + +ADOLPHE. After endless self-torture he reached a certain degree of +composure, but life had never any real pleasures to offer him. He never +dared to accept any kind of distinction; he never dared to feel himself +entitled to a kind word or even well-earned praise: in a word, he could +never quite forgive himself. + +HENRIETTE. Never? What had he done then? + +ADOLPHE. He had wished the life out of his father. And when his father +suddenly died, the son imagined himself to have killed him. Those +imaginations were regarded as signs of some mental disease, and he was +sent to an asylum. From this he was discharged after a time as wholly +recovered--as they put it. But the sense of guilt remained with him, and +so he continued to punish himself for his evil thoughts. + +HENRIETTE. Are you sure the evil will cannot kill? + +ADOLPHE. You mean in some mystic way? + +HENRIETTE. As you please. Let it go at mystic. In my own family--I am +sure that my mother and my sisters killed my father with their hatred. +You see, he had the awful idea that he must oppose all our tastes and +inclinations. Wherever he discovered a natural gift, he tried to root +it out. In that way he aroused a resistance that accumulated until it +became like an electrical battery charged with hatred. At last it +grew so powerful that he languished away, became depolarised, lost his +will-power, and, in the end, came to wish himself dead. + +ADOLPHE. And your conscience never troubled you? + +HENRIETTE. No, and furthermore, I don't know what conscience is. + +ADOLPHE. You don't? Well, then you'll soon learn. [Pause] How do you +believe Maurice will look when he gets here? What do you think he will +say? + +HENRIETTE. Yesterday morning, you know, he and I tried to make the same +kind of guess about you while we were waiting for you. + +ADOLPHE. Well? + +HENRIETTE. We guessed entirely wrong. + +ADOLPHE. Can you tell me why you sent for me? + +HENRIETTE. Malice, arrogance, outright cruelty! + +ADOLPHE. How strange it is that you can admit your faults and yet not +repent of them. + +HENRIETTE. It must be because I don't feel quite responsible for them. +They are like the dirt left behind by things handled during the day +and washed off at night. But tell me one thing: do you really think so +highly of humanity as you profess to do? + +ADOLPHE. Yes, we are a little better than our reputation--and a little +worse. + +HENRIETTE. That is not a straightforward answer. + +ADOLPHE. No, it isn't. But are you willing to answer me frankly when I +ask you: do you still love Maurice? + +HENRIETTE. I cannot tell until I see him. But at this moment I feel no +longing for him, and it seems as if I could very well live without him. + +ADOLPHE. It's likely you could, but I fear you have become chained to +his fate--Sh! Here he comes. + +HENRIETTE. How everything repeats itself. The situation is the same, the +very words are the same, as when we were expecting you yesterday. + +MAURICE. [Enters, pale as death, hollow-eyed, unshaven] Here I am, my +dear friends, if this be me. For that last night in a cell changed me +into a new sort of being. [Notices HENRIETTE and ADOLPHE.] + +ADOLPHE. Sit down and pull yourself together, and then we can talk +things over. + +MAURICE. [To HENRIETTE] Perhaps I am in the way? + +ADOLPHE. Now, don't get bitter. + +MAURICE. I have grown bad in these twenty-four hours, and suspicious +also, so I guess I'll soon be left to myself. And who wants to keep +company with a murderer? + +HENRIETTE. But you have been cleared of the charge. + +MAURICE. [Picks up a newspaper] By the police, yes, but not by public +opinion. Here you see the murderer Maurice Gerard, once a playwright, +and his mistress, Henriette Mauclerc-- + +HENRIETTE. O my mother and my sisters--my mother! Jesus have mercy! + +MAURICE. And can you see that I actually look like a murderer? And then +it is suggested that my play was stolen. So there isn't a vestige left +of the victorious hero from yesterday. In place of my own, the name of +Octave, my enemy, appears on the bill-boards, and he is going to collect +my one hundred thousand francs. O Solon, Solon! Such is fortune, and +such is fame! You are fortunate, Adolphe, because you have not yet +succeeded. + +HENRIETTE. So you don't know that Adolphe has made a great success in +London and carried off the first prize? + +MAURICE. [Darkly] No, I didn't know that. Is it true, Adolphe? + +ADOLPHE. It is true, but I have returned the prize. + +HENRIETTE. [With emphasis] That I didn't know! So you are also prevented +from accepting any distinctions--like your friend? + +ADOLPHE. My friend? [Embarrassed] Oh, yes, yes! + +MAURICE. Your success gives me pleasure, but it puts us still farther +apart. + +ADOLPHE. That's what I expected, and I suppose I'll be as lonely with my +success as you with your adversity. Think of it--that people feel hurt +by your fortune! Oh, it's ghastly to be alive! + +MAURICE. You say that! What am I then to say? It is as if my eyes had +been covered with a black veil, and as if the colour and shape of +all life had been changed by it. This room looks like the room I saw +yesterday, and yet it is quite different. I recognise both of you, of +course, but your faces are new to me. I sit here and search for words +because I don't know what to say to you. I ought to defend myself, but +I cannot. And I almost miss the cell, for it protected me, at least, +against the curious glances that pass right through me. The murderer +Maurice and his mistress! You don't love me any longer, Henriette, +and no more do I care for you. To-day you are ugly, clumsy, insipid, +repulsive. + +(Two men in civilian clothes have quietly seated themselves at a table +in the background.) + +ADOLPHE. Wait a little and get your thoughts together. That you have +been discharged and cleared of all suspicion must appear in some of the +evening papers. And that puts an end to the whole matter. Your play will +be put on again, and if it comes to the worst, you can write a new one. +Leave Paris for a year and let everything become forgotten. You who have +exonerated mankind will be exonerated yourself. + +MAURICE. Ha-ha! Mankind! Ha-ha! + +ADOLPHE. You have ceased to believe in goodness? MAURICE. Yes, if I ever +did believe in it. Perhaps it was only a mood, a manner of looking at +things, a way of being polite to the wild beasts. When I, who was held +among the best, can be so rotten to the core, what must then be the +wretchedness of the rest? + +ADOLPHE. Now I'll go out and get all the evening papers, and then we'll +undoubtedly have reason to look at things in a different way. + +MAURICE. [Turning toward the background] Two detectives!--It means that +I am released under surveillance, so that I can give myself away by +careless talking. + +ADOLPHE. Those are not detectives. That's only your imagination. I +recognise both of them. [Goes toward the door.] + +MAURICE. Don't leave us alone, Adolphe. I fear that Henriette and I may +come to open explanations. + +ADOLPHE. Oh, be sensible, Maurice, and think of your future. Try to keep +him quiet, Henriette. I'll be back in a moment. [Goes out.] + +HENRIETTE. Well, Maurice, what do you think now of our guilt or +guiltlessness? + +MAURICE. I have killed nobody. All I did was to talk a lot of nonsense +while I was drunk. But it is your crime that comes back, and that crime +you have grafted on to me. + +HENRIETTE. Oh, that's the tone you talk in now!--Was it not you who +cursed your own child, and wished the life out of it, and wanted to go +away without saying good-bye to anybody? And was it not I who made you +visit Marion and show yourself to Madame Catherine? + +MAURICE. Yes, you are right. Forgive me! You proved yourself more human +than I, and the guilt is wholly my own. Forgive me! But all the same +I am without guilt. Who has tied this net from which I can never free +myself? Guilty and guiltless; guiltless and yet guilty! Oh, it is +driving me mad--Look, now they sit over there and listen to us--And no +waiter comes to take our order. I'll go out and order a cup of tea. Do +you want anything? + +HENRIETTE. Nothing. + +(MAURICE goes out.) + +FIRST DETECTIVE. [Goes up to HENRIETTE] Let me look at your papers. + +HENRIETTE. How dare you speak to me? + +DETECTIVE. Dare? I'll show you! + +HENRIETTE. What do you mean? + +DETECTIVE. It's my job to keep an eye on street-walkers. Yesterday +you came here with one man, and today with another. That's as good as +walking the streets. And unescorted ladies don't get anything here. So +you'd better get out and come along with me. + +HENRIETTE. My escort will be back in a moment. + +DETECTIVE. Yes, and a pretty kind of escort you've got--the kind that +doesn't help a girl a bit! + +HENRIETTE. O God! My mother, my sisters!--I am of good family, I tell +you. + +DETECTIVE. Yes, first-rate family, I am sure. But you are too well known +through the papers. Come along! + +HENRIETTE. Where? What do you mean? + +DETECTIVE. Oh, to the Bureau, of course. There you'll get a nice little +card and a license that brings you free medical care. + +HENRIETTE. O Lord Jesus, you don't mean it! + +DETECTIVE. [Grabbing HENRIETTE by the arm] Don't I mean it? + +HENRIETTE. [Falling on her knees] Save me, Maurice! Help! + +DETECTIVE. Shut up, you fool! + +(MAURICE enters, followed by WAITER.) + +WAITER. Gentlemen of that kind are not served here. You just pay and get +out! And take the girl along! + +MAURICE. [Crushed, searches his pocket-book for money] Henriette, pay +for me, and let us get away from this place. I haven't a sou left. + +WAITER. So the lady has to put up for her Alphonse! Alphonse! Do you +know what that is? + +HENRIETTE. [Looking through her pocket-book] Oh, merciful heavens! I +have no money either!--Why doesn't Adolphe come back? + +DETECTIVE. Well, did you ever see such rotters! Get out of here, and +put up something as security. That kind of ladies generally have their +fingers full of rings. + +MAURICE. Can it be possible that we have sunk so low? + +HENRIETTE. [Takes off a ring and hands it to the WAITER] The Abbe was +right: this is not the work of man. + +MAURICE. No, it's the devil's!--But if we leave before Adolphe returns, +he will think that we have deceived him and run away. + +HENRIETTE. That would be in keeping with the rest--But we'll go into the +river now, won't we? + +MAURICE. [Takes HENRIETTE by the hand as they walk out together] Into +the river--yes! + +(Curtain.) + + + + +ACT IV + + + + +FIRST SCENE + + +(In the Luxembourg Gardens, at the group of Adam and Eve. The wind is +shaking the trees and stirring up dead leaves, straws, and pieces of +paper from the ground.) + +(MAURICE and HENRIETTE are seated on a bench.) + +HENRIETTE. So you don't want to die? + +MAURICE. No, I am afraid. I imagine that I am going to be very cold down +there in the grave, with only a sheet to cover me and a few shavings +to lie on. And besides that, it seems to me as if there were still some +task waiting for me, but I cannot make out what it is. + +HENRIETTE. But I can guess what it is. + +MAURICE. Tell me. + +HENRIETTE. It is revenge. You, like me, must have suspected Jeanne and +Emile of sending the detectives after me yesterday. Such a revenge on a +rival none but a woman could devise. + +MAURICE. Exactly what I was thinking. But let me tell you that my +suspicions go even further. It seems as if my sufferings during these +last few days had sharpened my wits. Can you explain, for instance, +why the waiter from the Auberge des Adrets and the head waiter from the +Pavilion were not called to testify at the hearing? + +HENRIETTE. I never thought of it before. But now I know why. They had +nothing to tell, because they had not been listening. + +MAURICE. But how could the Commissaire then know what we had been +saying? + +HENRIETTE. He didn't know, but he figured it out. He was guessing, and +he guessed right. Perhaps he had had to deal with some similar case +before. + +MAURICE. Or else he concluded from our looks what we had been saying. +There are those who can read other people's thoughts--Adolphe being the +dupe, it seemed quite natural that we should have called him an ass. +It's the rule, I understand, although it's varied at times by the use of +"idiot" instead. But ass was nearer at hand in this case, as we had +been talking of carriages and triumphal chariots. It is quite simple to +figure out a fourth fact, when you have three known ones to start from. + +HENRIETTE. Just think that we have let ourselves be taken in so +completely. + +MAURICE. That's the result of thinking too well of one's fellow beings. +This is all you get out of it. But do you know, _I_ suspect somebody +else back of the Commissaire, who, by-the-bye, must be a full-fledged +scoundrel. + +HENRIETTE. You mean the Abbe, who was taking the part of a private +detective. + +MAURICE. That's what I mean. That man has to receive all kinds of +confessions. And note you: Adolphe himself told us he had been at the +Church of St. Germain that morning. What was he doing there? He was +blabbing, of course, and bewailing his fate. And then the priest put the +questions together for the Commissaire. + +HENRIETTE. Tell me something: do you trust Adolphe? + +MAURICE. I trust no human being any longer. + +HENRIETTE. Not even Adolphe? + +MAURICE. Him least of all. How could I trust an enemy--a man from whom I +have taken away his mistress? + +HENRIETTE. Well, as you were the first one to speak of this, I'll give +you some data about our friend. You heard he had returned that medal +from London. Do you know his reason for doing so? + +MAURICE. No. + +HENRIETTE. He thinks himself unworthy of it, and he has taken a +penitential vow never to receive any kind of distinction. + +MAURICE. Can that he possible? But what has he done? + +HENRIETTE. He has committed a crime of the kind that is not punishable +under the law. That's what he gave me to understand indirectly. + +MAURICE. He, too! He, the best one of all, the model man, who never +speaks a hard word of anybody and who forgives everything. + +HENRIETTE. Well, there you can see that we are no worse than others. And +yet we are being hounded day and night as if devils were after us. + +MAURICE. He, also! Then mankind has not been slandered--But if he has +been capable of ONE crime, then you may expect anything of him. Perhaps +it was he who sent the police after you yesterday. Coming to think of it +now, it was he who sneaked away from us when he saw that we were in +the papers, and he lied when he insisted that those fellows were not +detectives. But, of course, you may expect anything from a deceived +lover. + +HENRIETTE. Could he be as mean as that? No, it is impossible, +impossible! + +MAURICE. Why so? If he is a scoundrel?--What were you two talking of +yesterday, before I came? + +HENRIETTE. He had nothing but good to say of you. + +MAURICE. That's a lie! + +HENRIETTE. [Controlling herself and changing her tone] Listen. There is +one person on whom you have cast no suspicion whatever--for what reason, +I don't know. Have you thought of Madame Catherine's wavering attitude +in this matter? Didn't she say finally that she believed you capable of +anything? + +MAURICE. Yes, she did, and that shows what kind of person she is. +To think evil of other people without reason, you must be a villain +yourself. + +(HENRIETTE looks hard at him. Pause.) + +HENRIETTE. To think evil of others, you must be a villain yourself. + +MAURICE. What do you mean? + +HENRIETTE. What I said. + +MAURICE. Do you mean that I--? + +HENRIETTE. Yes, that's what I mean now! Look here! Did you meet anybody +but Marion when you called there yesterday morning? + +MAURICE. Why do you ask? + +HENRIETTE. Guess! + +MAURICE. Well, as you seem to know--I met Jeanne, too. + +HENRIETTE. Why did you lie to me? + +MAURICE. I wanted to spare you. + +HENRIETTE. And now you want me to believe in one who has been lying to +me? No, my boy, now I believe you guilty of that murder. + +MAURICE. Wait a moment! We have now reached the place for which my +thoughts have been heading all the time, though I resisted as long as +possible. It's queer that what lies next to one is seen last of all, and +what one doesn't WANT to believe cannot be believed--Tell me something: +where did you go yesterday morning, after we parted in the Bois? + +HENRIETTE. [Alarmed] Why? + +MAURICE. You went either to Adolphe--which you couldn't do, as he was +attending a lesson--or you went to--Marion! + +HENRIETTE. Now I am convinced that you are the murderer. + +MAURICE. And I, that you are the murderess! You alone had an interest in +getting the child out of the way--to get rid of the rock on the road, as +you so aptly put it. + +HENRIETTE. It was you who said that. + +MAURICE. And the one who had an interest in it must have committed the +crime. + +HENRIETTE. Now, Maurice, we have been running around and around in this +tread-mill, scourging each other. Let us quit before we get to the point +of sheer madness. + +MAURICE. You have reached that point already. + +HENRIETTE. Don't you think it's time for us to part, before we drive +each other insane? + +MAURICE. Yes, I think so. + +HENRIETTE. [Rising] Good-bye then! + +(Two men in civilian clothes become visible in the background.) + +HENRIETTE. [Turns and comes back to MAURICE] There they are again! + +MAURICE. The dark angels that want to drive us out of the garden. + +HENRIETTE. And force us back upon each other as if we were chained +together. + +MAURICE. Or as if we were condemned to lifelong marriage. Are we really +to marry? To settle down in the same place? To be able to close the door +behind us and perhaps get peace at last? + +HENRIETTE. And shut ourselves up in order to torture each other to +death; get behind locks and bolts, with a ghost for marriage portion; +you torturing me with the memory of Adolphe, and I getting back at you +with Jeanne--and Marion. + +MAURICE. Never mention the name of Marion again! Don't you know that she +was to be buried today--at this very moment perhaps? + +HENRIETTE. And you are not there? What does that mean? + +MAURICE. It means that both Jeanne and the police have warned me against +the rage of the people. + +HENRIETTE. A coward, too? + +MAURICE. All the vices! How could you ever have cared for me? + +HENRIETTE. Because two days ago you were another person, well worthy of +being loved--- + +MAURICE. And now sunk to such a depth! + +HENRIETTE. It isn't that. But you are beginning to flaunt bad qualities +which are not your own. + +MAURICE. But yours? + +HENRIETTE. Perhaps, for when you appear a little worse I feel myself at +once a little better. + +MAURICE. It's like passing on a disease to save one's self-respect. + +HENRIETTE. And how vulgar you have become, too! + +MAURICE. Yes, I notice it myself, and I hardly recognise myself since +that night in the cell. They put in one person and let out another +through that gate which separates us from the rest of society. And now +I feel myself the enemy of all mankind: I should like to set fire to +the earth and dry up the oceans, for nothing less than a universal +conflagration can wipe out my dishonour. + +HENRIETTE. I had a letter from my mother today. She is the widow of a +major in the army, well educated, with old-fashioned ideas of honour and +that kind of thing. Do you want to read the letter? No, you don't!--Do +you know that I am an outcast? My respectable acquaintances will have +nothing to do with me, and if I show myself on the streets alone the +police will take me. Do you realise now that we have to get married? + +MAURICE. We despise each other, and yet we have to marry: that is hell +pure and simple! But, Henriette, before we unite our destinies you must +tell me your secret, so that we may be on more equal terms. + +HENRIETTE. All right, I'll tell you. I had a friend who got into +trouble--you understand. I wanted to help her, as her whole future was +at stake--and she died! + +MAURICE. That was reckless, but one might almost call it noble, too. + +HENRIETTE. You say so now, but the next time you lose your temper you +will accuse me of it. + +MAURICE. No, I won't. But I cannot deny that it has shaken my faith +in you and that it makes me afraid of you. Tell me, is her lover still +alive, and does he know to what extent you were responsible? + +HENRIETTE. He was as guilty as I. + +MAURICE. And if his conscience should begin to trouble him--such things +do happen--and if he should feel inclined to confess: then you would be +lost. + +HENRIETTE. I know it, and it is this constant dread which has made me +rush from one dissipation to another--so that I should never have time +to wake up to full consciousness. + +MAURICE. And now you want me to take my marriage portion out of your +dread. That's asking a little too much. + +HENRIETTE. But when I shared the shame of Maurice the murderer--- + +MAURICE. Oh, let's come to an end with it! + +HENRIETTE. No, the end is not yet, and I'll not let go my hold until I +have put you where you belong. For you can't go around thinking yourself +better than I am. + +MAURICE. So you want to fight me then? All right, as you please! + +HENRIETTE. A fight on life and death! + +(The rolling of drums is heard in the distance.) + +MAURICE. The garden is to be closed. "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; +thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." + +HENRIETTE. "And the Lord God said unto the woman---" + +A GUARD. [In uniform, speaking very politely] Sorry, but the garden has +to be closed. + +(Curtain.) + + + + +SECOND SCENE + + +(The Cremerie. MME. CATHERINE is sitting at the counter making entries +into an account book. ADOLPHE and HENRIETTE are seated at a table.) + +ADOLPHE. [Calmly and kindly] But if I give you my final assurance that I +didn't run away, but that, on the contrary, I thought you had played me +false, this ought to convince you. + +HENRIETTE. But why did you fool us by saying that those fellows were not +policemen? + +ADOLPHE. I didn't think myself that they were, and then I wanted to +reassure you. + +HENRIETTE. When you say it, I believe you. But then you must also +believe me, if I reveal my innermost thoughts to you. + +ADOLPHE. Go on. + +HENRIETTE. But you mustn't come back with your usual talk of fancies and +delusions. + +ADOLPHE. You seem to have reason to fear that I may. + +HENRIETTE. I fear nothing, but I know you and your scepticism--Well, and +then you mustn't tell this to anybody--promise me! + +ADOLPHE. I promise. + +HENRIETTE. Now think of it, although I must say it's something terrible: +I have partial evidence that Maurice is guilty, or at least, I have +reasonable suspicions--- + +ADOLPHE. You don't mean it! + +HENRIETTE. Listen, and judge for yourself. When Maurice left me in the +Bois, he said he was going to see Marion alone, as the mother was out. +And now I have discovered afterward that he did meet the mother. So that +he has been lying to me. + +ADOLPHE. That's possible, and his motive for doing so may have been +the best, but how can anybody conclude from it that he is guilty of a +murder? + +HENRIETTE. Can't you see that?--Don't you understand? + +ADOLPHE. Not at all. + +HENRIETTE. Because you don't want to!--Then there is nothing left for me +but to report him, and we'll see whether he can prove an alibi. + +ADOLPHE. Henriette, let me tell you the grim truth. You, like he, have +reached the border line of--insanity. The demons of distrust have got +hold of you, and each of you is using his own sense of partial guilt to +wound the other with. Let me see if I can make a straight guess: he has +also come to suspect you of killing his child? + +HENRIETTE. Yes, he's mad enough to do so. + +ADOLPHE. You call his suspicions mad, but not your own. + +HENRIETTE. You have first to prove the contrary, or that I suspect him +unjustly. + +ADOLPHE. Yes, that's easy. A new autopsy has proved that Marion died of +a well-known disease, the queer name of which I cannot recall just now. + +HENRIETTE. Is it true? + +ADOLPHE. The official report is printed in today's paper. + +HENRIETTE. I don't take any stock in it. They can make up that kind of +thing. + +ADOLPHE. Beware, Henriette--or you may, without knowing it, pass across +that border line. Beware especially of throwing out accusations that may +put you into prison. Beware! [He places his hand on her head] You hate +Maurice? + +HENRIETTE. Beyond all bounds! + +ADOLPHE. When love turns into hatred, it means that it was tainted from +the start. + +HENRIETTE. [In a quieter mood] What am I to do? Tell me, you who are the +only one that understands me. + +ADOLPHE. But you don't want any sermons. + +HENRIETTE. Have you nothing else to offer me? + +ADOLPHE. Nothing else. But they have helped me. + +HENRIETTE. Preach away then! + +ADOLPHE. Try to turn your hatred against yourself. Put the knife to the +evil spot in yourself, for it is there that YOUR trouble roots. + +HENRIETTE. Explain yourself. + +ADOLPHE. Part from Maurice first of all, so that you cannot nurse your +qualms of conscience together. Break off your career as an artist, +for the only thing that led you into it was a craving for freedom and +fun--as they call it. And you have seen now how much fun there is in it. +Then go home to your mother. + +HENRIETTE. Never! + +ADOLPHE. Some other place then. + +HENRIETTE. I suppose you know, Adolphe, that I have guessed your secret +and why you wouldn't accept the prize? + +ADOLPHE. Oh, I assumed that you would understand a half-told story. + +HENRIETTE. Well--what did you do to get peace? + +ADOLPHE. What I have suggested: I became conscious of my guilt, +repented, decided to turn over a new leaf, and arranged my life like +that of a penitent. + +HENRIETTE. How can you repent when, like me, you have no conscience? Is +repentance an act of grace bestowed on you as faith is? + +ADOLPHE. Everything is a grace, but it isn't granted unless you seek +it--Seek! + +(HENRIETTE remains silent.) + +ADOLPHE. But don't wait beyond the allotted time, or you may harden +yourself until you tumble down into the irretrievable. + +HENRIETTE. [After a pause] Is conscience fear of punishment? + +ADOLPHE. No, it is the horror inspired in our better selves by the +misdeeds of our lower selves. + +HENRIETTE. Then I must have a conscience also? + +ADOLPHE. Of course you have, but-- + +HENRIETTE, Tell me, Adolphe, are you what they call religious? + +ADOLPHE. Not the least bit. + +HENRIETTE. It's all so queer--What is religion? + +ADOLPHE. Frankly speaking, I don't know! And I don't think anybody else +can tell you. Sometimes it appears to me like a punishment, for nobody +becomes religious without having a bad conscience. + +HENRIETTE. Yes, it is a punishment. Now I know what to do. Good-bye, +Adolphe! + +ADOLPHE. You'll go away from here? + +HENRIETTE. Yes, I am going--to where you said. Good-bye my friend! +Good-bye, Madame Catherine! + +MME. CATHERINE. Have you to go in such a hurry? + +HENRIETTE. Yes. + +ADOLPHE. Do you want me to go with you? + +HENRIETTE. No, it wouldn't do. I am going alone, alone as I came here, +one day in Spring, thinking that I belonged where I don't belong, and +believing there was something called freedom, which does not exist. +Good-bye! [Goes out.] + +MME. CATHERINE. I hope that lady never comes back, and I wish she had +never come here at all! + +ADOLPHE. Who knows but that she may have had some mission to fill here? +And at any rate she deserves pity, endless pity. + +MME. CATHERINE. I don't, deny it, for all of us deserve that. + +ADOLPHE. And she has even done less wrong than the rest of us. + +MME. CATHERINE. That's possible, but not probable. + +ADOLPHE. You are always so severe, Madame Catherine. Tell me: have you +never done anything wrong? + +MME. CATHERINE. [Startled] Of course, as I am a sinful human creature. +But if you have been on thin ice and fallen in, you have a right to +tell others to keep away. And you may do so without being held severe +or uncharitable. Didn't I say to Monsieur Maurice the moment that lady +entered here: Look out! Keep away! And he didn't, and so he fell in. +Just like a naughty, self-willed child. And when a man acts like that he +has to have a spanking, like any disobedient youngster. + +ADOLPHE. Well, hasn't he had his spanking? + +MME. CATHERINE. Yes, but it does not seem to have been enough, as he is +still going around complaining. + +ADOLPHE. That's a very popular interpretation of the whole intricate +question. + +MME. CATHERINE. Oh, pish! You do nothing but philosophise about your +vices, and while you are still at it the police come along and solve the +riddle. Now please leave me alone with my accounts! + +ADOLPHE. There's Maurice now. + +MME. CATHERINE. Yes, God bless him! + +MAURICE. [Enters, his face very flushed, and takes a seat near ADOLPHE] +Good evening. + +(MME. CATHERINE nods and goes on figuring.) + +ADOLPHE. Well, how's everything with you? + +MAURICE. Oh, beginning to clear up. + +ADOLPHE. [Hands him a newspaper, which MAURICE does not take] So you +have read the paper? + +MAURICE. No, I don't read the papers any longer. There's nothing but +infamies in them. + +ADOLPHE. But you had better read it first--- + +MAURICE. No, I won't! It's nothing but lies--But listen: I have found a +new clue. Can you guess who committed that murder? + +ADOLPHE. Nobody, nobody! + +MAURICE. Do you know where Henriette was during that quarter hour when +the child was left alone?--She was THERE! And it is she who has done it! + +ADOLPHE. You are crazy, man. + +MAURICE. Not I, but Henriette, is crazy. She suspects me and has +threatened to report me. + +ADOLPHE. Henriette was here a while ago, and she used the self-same +words as you. Both of you are crazy, for it has been proved by a second +autopsy that the child died from a well-known disease, the name of which +I have forgotten. + +MAURICE. It isn't true! + +ADOLPHE. That's what she said also. But the official report is printed +in the paper. + +MAURICE. A report? Then they have made it up! + +ADOLPHE. And that's also what she said. The two of you are suffering +from the same mental trouble. But with her I got far enough to make her +realise her own condition. + +MAURICE. Where did she go? + +ADOLPHE. She went far away from here to begin a new life. + +MAURICE. Hm, hm!--Did you go to the funeral? ADOLPHE. I did. + +MAURICE. Well? + +ADOLPHE. Well, Jeanne seemed resigned and didn't have a hard word to say +about you. + +MAURICE. She is a good woman. + +ADOLPHE. Why did you desert her then? + +MAURICE. Because I WAS crazy--blown up with pride especially--and then +we had been drinking champagne--- + +ADOLPHE. Can you understand now why Jeanne wept when you drank +champagne? + +MAURICE. Yes, I understand now--And for that reason I have already +written to her and asked her to forgive me--Do you think she will +forgive me? + +ADOLPHE. I think so, for it's not like her to hate anybody. + +MAURICE. Do you think she will forgive me completely, so that she will +come back to me? + +ADOLPHE. Well, I don't know about THAT. You have shown yourself so poor +in keeping faith that it is doubtful whether she will trust her fate to +you any longer. + +MAURICE. But I can feel that her fondness for me has not ceased, and I +know she will come back to me. + +ADOLPHE. How can you know that? How can you believe it? Didn't you even +suspect her and that decent brother of hers of having sent the police +after Henriette out of revenge? + +MAURICE. But I don't believe it any longer--that is to say, I guess that +fellow Emile is a pretty slick customer. + +MME. CATHERINE. Now look here! What are you saying of Monsieur Emile? Of +course, he is nothing but a workman, but if everybody kept as straight +as he--There is no flaw in him, but a lot of sense and tact. + +EMILE. [Enters] Monsieur Gerard? + +MAURICE. That's me. + +EMILE. Pardon me, but I have something to say to you in private. + +MAURICE. Go right on. We are all friends here. + +(The ABBE enters and sits down.) + +EMILE. [With a glance at the ABBE] Perhaps after--- + +MAURICE. Never mind. The Abbe is also a friend, although he and I +differ. + +EMILE. You know who I am, Monsieur Gerard? My sister has asked me to +give you this package as an answer to your letter. + +(MAURICE takes the package and opens it.) + +EMILE. And now I have only to add, seeing as I am in a way my sister's +guardian, that, on her behalf as well as my own, I acknowledge you free +of all obligations, now when the natural tie between you does not exist +any longer. + +MAURICE. But you must have a grudge against me? + +EMILE. Must I? I can't see why. On the other hand, I should like to have +a declaration from you, here in the presence of your friends, that you +don't think either me or my sister capable of such a meanness as to send +the police after Mademoiselle Henriette. + +MAURICE. I wish to take back what I said, and I offer you my apology, if +you will accept it. + +EMILE. It is accepted. And I wish all of you a good evening. [Goes out.] + +EVERYBODY. Good evening! + +MAURICE. The tie and the gloves which Jeanne gave me for the opening +night of my play, and which I let Henrietta throw into the fireplace. +Who can have picked them up? Everything is dug up; everything comes +back!--And when she gave them to me in the cemetery, she said she +wanted me to look fine and handsome, so that other people would like me +also--And she herself stayed at home--This hurt her too deeply, and well +it might. I have no right to keep company with decent human beings. Oh, +have I done this? Scoffed at a gift coming from a good heart; scorned a +sacrifice offered to my own welfare. This was what I threw away in order +to get--a laurel that is lying on the rubbish heap, and a bust that +would have belonged in the pillory--Abbe, now I come over to you. + +ABBE. Welcome! + +MAURICE. Give me the word that I need. + +ABBE. Do you expect me to contradict your self-accusations and inform +you that you have done nothing wrong? + +MAURICE. Speak the right word! + +ABBE. With your leave, I'll say then that I have found your behaviour +just as abominable as you have found it yourself. + +MAURICE. What can I do, what can I do, to get out of this? + +ABBE. You know as well as I do. + +MAURICE. No, I know only that I am lost, that my life is spoiled, my +career cut off, my reputation in this world ruined forever. + +ABBE. And so you are looking for a new existence in some better world, +which you are now beginning to believe in? + +MAURICE. Yes, that's it. + +ABBE. You have been living in the flesh and you want now to live in the +spirit. Are you then so sure that this world has no more attractions for +you? + +MAURICE. None whatever! Honour is a phantom; gold, nothing but dry +leaves; women, mere intoxicants. Let me hide myself behind your +consecrated walls and forget this horrible dream that has filled two +days and lasted two eternities. + +ABBE. All right! But this is not the place to go into the matter more +closely. Let us make an appointment for this evening at nine o'clock in +the Church of St. Germain. For I am going to preach to the inmates +of St. Lazare, and that may be your first step along the hard road of +penitence. + +MAURICE. Penitence? + +ABBE. Well, didn't you wish--- + +MAURICE. Yes, yes! + +ABBE. Then we have vigils between midnight and two o'clock. + +MAURICE. That will be splendid! + +ABBE. Give me your hand that you will not look back. + +MAURICE. [Rising, holds out his hand] Here is my hand, and my will goes +with it. + +SERVANT GIRL. [Enters from the kitchen] A telephone call for Monsieur +Maurice. + +MAURICE. From whom? + +SERVANT GIRL. From the theatre. + +(MAURICE tries to get away, but the ABBE holds on to his hand.) + +ABBE. [To the SERVANT GIRL] Find out what it is. + +SERVANT GIRL. They want to know if Monsieur Maurice is going to attend +the performance tonight. + +ABBE. [To MAURICE, who is trying to get away] No, I won't let you go. + +MAURICE. What performance is that? + +ADOLPHE. Why don't you read the paper? + +MME. CATHERINE and the ABBE. He hasn't read the paper? + +MAURICE. It's all lies and slander. [To the SERVANT GIRL] Tell them that +I am engaged for this evening: I am going to church. + +(The SERVANT GIRL goes out into the kitchen.) + +ADOLPHE. As you don't want to read the paper, I shall have to tell you +that your play has been put on again, now when you are exonerated. And +your literary friends have planned a demonstration for this evening in +recognition of your indisputable talent. + +MAURICE. It isn't true. + +EVERYBODY. It is true. + +MAURICE. [After a pause] I have not deserved it! + +ABBE. Good! + +ADOLPHE. And furthermore, Maurice--- + +MAURICE. [Hiding his face in his hands] Furthermore! + +MME. CATHERINE. One hundred thousand francs! Do you see now that they +come back to you? And the villa outside the city. Everything is coming +back except Mademoiselle Henriette. + +ABBE. [Smiling] You ought to take this matter a little more seriously, +Madame Catherine. + +MME. CATHERINE. Oh, I cannot--I just can't keep serious any longer! + +[She breaks into open laughter, which she vainly tries to smother with +her handkerchief.] + +ADOLPHE. Say, Maurice, the play begins at eight. + +ABBE. But the church services are at nine. + +ADOLPHE. Maurice! + +MME. CATHERINE. Let us hear what the end is going to be, Monsieur +Maurice. + +(MAURICE drops his head on the table, in his arms.) + +ADOLPHE. Loose him, Abbe! + +ABBE. No, it is not for me to loose or bind. He must do that himself. + +MAURICE. [Rising] Well, I go with the Abbe. + +ABBE. No, my young friend. I have nothing to give you but a scolding, +which you can give yourself. And you owe a duty to yourself and to your +good name. That you have got through with this as quickly as you have is +to me a sign that you have suffered your punishment as intensely as if +it had lasted an eternity. And when Providence absolves you there is +nothing for me to add. + +MAURICE. But why did the punishment have to be so hard when I was +innocent? + +ABBE. Hard? Only two days! And you were not innocent. For we have to +stand responsible for our thoughts and words and desires also. And in +your thought you became a murderer when your evil self wished the life +out of your child. + +MAURICE. You are right. But my decision is made. To-night I will +meet you at the church in order to have a reckoning with myself--but +to-morrow evening I go to the theatre. + +MME. CATHERINE. A good solution, Monsieur Maurice. + +ADOLPHE. Yes, that is the solution. Whew! + +ABBE. Yes, so it is! + +(Curtain.) + + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's There are Crimes and Crimes, by August Strindberg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE ARE CRIMES AND CRIMES *** + +***** This file should be named 4970.txt or 4970.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/4/9/7/4970/ + +Produced by Nicole Apostola, Charles Franks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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