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Pamela Giraud: A Play in Five Acts, a play by Honore de Balzac |
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Act 5 - Scene 1 |
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_ ACT V - SCENE FIRST SCENE FIRST (The stage setting represents the private study in Dupre's house. On one side is a bookcase, on the other a desk. On the left is a window hung with heavy, sweeping silk curtains.) Dupre, Pamela, Giraud and Madame Giraud.
DUPRE. (stopping, addresses Giraud) Did you take your usual precautions in coming here this morning? GIRAUD. You may rest assured of that, sir; when I come here I walk with my head turned backwards! I know well enough that the least want of caution quickly results in misfortune. Your heart, my daughter, has led you astray this time; perjury is a terrible thing and I am afraid you are in a serious mess. MME. GIRAUD. I agree with you. You must be very careful, Giraud, for if any one were to follow you and discover that our poor daughter was here in concealment, through the generosity of M. Dupre-- DUPRE. Come now, enough of that! (He continues to stride hastily about the room.) What ingratitude! The Rousseau family are ignorant of what steps I have taken. They believe that Pamela has been arrested, and none of them trouble their heads about it! They have sent Jules off to Brussels; De Verby is in the country; and Rousseau carries on his business at the Bourse as if nothing else was worth living for. Money, ambition, are their sole objects. The higher feelings count for nothing! They all worship the golden calf. Money makes them dance round their idol; the sight of it blinds them. (Pamela has been watching him, she rises and approaches him.) PAMELA. M. Dupre, you are agitated, you seem unwell. I fear it is on my account. DUPRE. Have you not shared my disgust at the hateful want of feeling manifested by this family, who, as soon as their son is acquitted, throw you aside as a mere tool that has served their purpose? PAMELA. But what can we do about it, sir? DUPRE. Dear child, does your heart feel no bitterness against them? PAMELA. No, sir! I am happier than any of them; for I feel that I have done a good deed. MME. GIRAUD. (embracing Pamela) My poor dear daughter! GIRAUD. This is the happiest moment of my life. DUPRE. (addressing Pamela) Mademoiselle, you are a noble girl! No one has better ground for saying it than I, for it was I who came to you imploring you to speak the truth; and pure and honorable as you are, you have compromised your character for the sake of another. And now they repulse you and treat you with contempt; but I look upon you with hearty admiration-- you shall yet be happy, for I will make full reparation to you! Pamela, I am forty-eight years old. I have some reputation, and a fortune. I have spent my life as an honest man, and will finish it as such; will you be my wife? PAMELA. (much moved) I, sir? GIRAUD. His wife! Our daughter his wife! What do you say to that, Mme. Giraud? MME. GIRAUD. Can it be possible? DUPRE. Why should you wonder at this? Let us have no idle phrases. Put the question to your own heart--and answer yes or no--Will you be my wife? PAMELA. You are a great man, sir, and I owe everything to you. Do you really wish to add to the debt? Ah! my gratitude--! DUPRE. Don't let me hear you use that word,--it spoils everything! The world is something that I despise! And I render to it no account of my conduct, my hatred or my love. From the moment I saw your courage and your resignation--I loved you. Try to love me in return! PAMELA. Ah, sir, indeed I will! MME. GIRAUD. Could any one help loving you? GIRAUD. Sir, I am only a poor porter. I repeat it, I am nothing but a porter. You love our daughter, you have told her so. Forgive me--my eyes are full of tears--and that checks my utterance. (He wipes his eyes.) Well, well, you do right to love her! It proves that you have brains! For Pamela--there are a great many landowners' children who are her inferiors. But it is humiliating for her to have parents such as us. PAMELA. O father! GIRAUD. You are a leader among men! Well, I and my wife, we will go and hide ourselves somewhere far into the country! And on Sunday, at the hour of mass, you will say, "They are praying to God for us!" (Pamela kisses her parents.) DUPRE. You are good people, and to think that such as you have neither title nor fortune! And if you are pining for your country home, you shall return there and live there in happiness and tranquillity, and I will make provision for you. GIRAUD AND MME. GIRAUD. Oh! our gratitude-- DUPRE. That word again--I should like to cut it out of the dictionary! Meanwhile I intend to take you both with me into the country, so set about packing up. GIRAUD. Sir! DUPRE. Well, what is it? GIRAUD. Poor Joseph Binet is also in danger. He does not know that we are all here. But three days ago, he came to see your servant and seemed scared almost to death, and he is hidden here, as in a sanctuary, up in the attic. DUPRE. Call him down-stairs. GIRAUD. He will not come, sir; he is too much afraid of being arrested--they pass him up food through a hole in the ceiling! DUPRE. He will soon be at liberty, I hope. I am expecting a letter which will relieve all your minds. GIRAUD. At once? DUPRE. I expect the letter this evening. GIRAUD. (to his wife) I am going to make my way cautiously to the house. (Madame Giraud accompanies him, and gives him advice. Pamela arises to follow her.) DUPRE. (restraining Pamela) You are not in love with this Binet, are you? PAMELA. Oh, never! DUPRE. And the other? PAMELA. (struggling with her feelings) I shall love none but you! (Pamela starts to leave the room. A noise is heard in the antechamber. Jules appears.) _ |
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