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_ ACT II - SECOND SCENE. THE BOIS DE BOULOGNE
(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.) _
Read next: Act 3 - Scene 1. The Cremerie
Read previous: Act 2 - Scene 1. The Auberge Des Adrets
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