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_ ACT III - SECOND SCENE. THE AUBERGE DES ADRETS
(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 To-day he has nothing, because his play has been withdrawn.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.) _
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