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Pamela Giraud: A Play in Five Acts, a play by Honore de Balzac |
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Act 2 - Scene 1 |
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_ ACT II - SCENE FIRST SCENE FIRST (The setting is a drawing-room in the Rousseau mansion. Antoine is looking through the newspapers.) Antoine and Justine.
ANTOINE. I am reading them. Isn't it a pity that we servants cannot learn, excepting through the papers, what is going on in the trial of M. Jules? JUSTINE. And yet the master and mistress and Mme. du Brocard, their sister, know nothing. M. Jules has been for three months--in--what do they call it?--in close confinement. ANTOINE. The arrest of the young man has evidently attracted great attention-- JUSTINE. It seems absurd to think that a young man who had nothing to do but amuse himself, who would some day inherit his aunt's income of twenty thousand francs, and his father's and mother's fortune, which is quite double that amount, should be mixed up in a conspiracy! ANTOINE. I admire him for it, for they were plotting to bring back the emperor! You may cause my throat to be cut if you like. We are alone here--you don't belong to the police; long live the emperor! say I. JUSTINE. For mercy's sake, hold your tongue, you old fool!--If any one heard you, you would get us all arrested. ANTOINE. I am not afraid of that, thank God! The answers I made to the magistrate were non-committal; I never compromised M. Jules, like the traitors who informed against him. JUSTINE. Mme. du Brocard with all her immense savings ought to be able to buy him off. ANTOINE. Oh, nonsense! Since the escape of Lavalette such a thing is impossible! They have become extremely particular at the gates of the prison, and they were never particularly accommodating. M. Jules will have to take his dose you see; he will be a martyr. I shall go and see him executed. (Some one rings. Exit Antoine.) JUSTINE. We will go and see him! When one has known a condemned man I don't see how they can have the heart to--As for me I shall go to the Court of Assizes. I feel, poor boy, I owe him that! _ |
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