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Pamela Giraud: A Play in Five Acts, a play by Honore de Balzac |
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Act 2 - Scene 7 |
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_ ACT II - SCENE SEVENTH Dupre and Joseph Binet.
DUPRE. What do you want with me? JOSEPH. I am Joseph Binet. DUPRE. Well, proceed. JOSEPH. Let me say without offence, sir, that I have fourteen hundred francs of my own--quite my own!--earned sou by sou. I am a journeyman upholsterer, and my uncle, Du Mouchel, a retired wine merchant, has plenty of the metal. DUPRE. Speak out openly! What is the meaning of this mysterious preamble? JOSEPH. Fourteen hundred francs is of course a mere trifle, and they say that lawyers have to be well paid, and that it is because they are well paid that there are so many of them. I should have done better if I had been a lawyer--then she would have married me! DUPRE. Are you crazy? JOSEPH. Not at all. I have here my fourteen hundred francs; take them, sir--no humbug! They are yours. DUPRE. And on what condition? JOSEPH. You must save M. Jules--I mean, of course, from death--and you must have him transported. I don't want him to be put to death; but he must go abroad. He is rich, and he will enjoy himself. But save his life. Procure a sentence of simple transportation, say for fifteen years, and my fourteen hundred francs are yours. I will give them to you gladly, and I will moreover make you an office chair below the market price. There now! DUPRE. What is your object in speaking to me in this way? JOSEPH. My object? I want to marry Pamela. I want to have my little Pamela. DUPRE. Pamela? JOSEPH. Pamela Giraud. DUPRE. What connection has Pamela Giraud with Jules Rousseau? JOSEPH. Well I never! Why! I thought that advocates were paid for learning and knowing everything. But you don't seem to know anything, sir. I am not surprised that there are those who say advocates are know-nothings. But I should like to have back my fourteen hundred francs. Pamela is accused, that is to say, she accuses me of having betrayed his head to the executioner, and you will understand that if after all he escapes, and is transported, I can marry, can wed Pamela; and as the transported man will not be in France, I need fear no disturbance in my home. Get him fifteen years; that is nothing; fifteen years for traveling and I shall have time to see my children grow up, and my wife old enough--you understand-- DUPRE. (aside) He is candid, at any rate--Those who make their calculations aloud and in such evident excitement are not the worst of people. JOSEPH. I say! Do you know the proverb--"A lawyer who talks to himself is like a pastry cook who eats his own wares,"--eh, sir? DUPRE. I understand you to say that Pamela is in love with M. Jules? JOSEPH. Ah! I see, you understand matters. DUPRE. They used frequently to meet I suppose? JOSEPH. Far too frequently! Oh! if I had only known it, I would have put a stop to it! DUPRE. Is she pretty? JOSEPH. Who?--Pamela?--My eye! My Pamela! She is as pretty as the Apollo Belvidere! DUPRE. Keep your fourteen hundred francs, my friend, and if you have courage, you and your Pamela, you will be able to help me in effecting his deliverance; for the question is absolutely whether we must let him go to the scaffold, or save him from it. JOSEPH. I beg you, sir, do not think of saying one word to Pamela; she is in despair. DUPRE. Nevertheless you must bring it about that I see her this morning. JOSEPH. I will send word to her through her parents. DUPRE. Ah! she has a father and mother living then? (Aside) This will cost a lot of money. (Aloud) Who are they? JOSEPH. They are respectable porters. DUPRE. That is good. JOSEPH. Old Giraud is a ruined tailor. DUPRE. Very well, go and inform them of my intended visit, and above all things preserve the utmost secrecy, or M. Jules will be sacrificed. JOSEPH. I shall be dumb. DUPRE. And let it be thought that we have never met. JOSEPH. We have never seen each other. DUPRE. Now go. JOSEPH. I am going. (He mistakes the door.) DUPRE. This is the way. JOSEPH. This is the way, great advocate--but let me give you a bit of advice-- a slight taste of transportation will not do him any harm; in fact, it will teach him to leave the government in peace. (Exit.) _ |
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