The Princess of Bagdad: A Play In Three Acts

Nourvady

No; but I shall come here no more.

Lionnette (laughing)

You did not enjoy your dinner?

Nourvady

Do me the honour of listening to me to the end.

Godler (to Trévelé, on seeing Lionnette seat herself again, and Nourvady approach her.)

That's well! With the other now.

Nourvady

I love you (Lionnette makes a movement). You know it; and you ought to have foreseen that I should one day tell you so.

Lionnette

Yes; it is only five minutes ago that my husband and I were speaking about it.

Nourvady

Do not laugh. You may tell by the tone of my voice that I am very serious. I love you passionately. You do not love me; you do not even think of me. It is probable that you will never love me. I possess nothing of all the essentials to tempt a woman like yourself – except a fortune.

Lionnette (rising to retire)

Sir!

Nourvady

Have patience! I am not capable of failing in respect towards you, as I love you. You are ruined – irreparably ruined. You can accept, it is true, the proposals that Madame Spadetta has had made to you, and free yourself in that manner. There would be no longer debt, but there would be straitened circumstances, and, perhaps, misery. Without counting that, it would be a great grief for you to give up, for ever, certain letters; a grief that whoever loves you ought to spare you.

Lionnette (re-seating herself)

How do you know that?

Nourvady

With money one knows all one wants to know, especially when Madame Spadetta is able to furnish all the information one requires. Do you remember, Countess, that one day, some months ago, passing through the Champs Elysées with your husband and me, you remarked at No. 20 a private house that was nearly finished.

Lionnette

Yes.

Nourvady

You admired then the exterior elegance of that house. That was sufficient to induce me to resolve that no man should inhabit it; – another time you might have looked mechanically in passing on that side, and the proprietor at his window might have imagined that it was at him the lovely Countess of Hun was looking. I have bought that house, and I have had it furnished as elegantly as possible. If, in a year, in two years, in ten years, if – to-morrow – circumstances force you to sell this house where we are at this moment, think of that house in the Champs Elysées that no one has ever yet inhabited. The carriages are waiting in the coach-houses, the horses in the stables, the footmen in the ante-rooms. The little door that this key opens is only for you. (He shows a little key.) That door you will easily recognize: your monogram is on it. From the moment you cross it, if you cross the threshold one day, you will not even have the trouble of opening another with it; all the doors will be open in the way that leads to your apartment. In the drawing-room is an Arabian coffer of marvellous workmanship; this coffer contains a million in gold, struck on purpose for you: it is virgin gold, such as gold ought to be that your little hands deign to touch. You can make use of all in this coffer; when it is empty it will fill itself again – it is a secret. The deeds which confer upon you the ownership of this house are deposited in one of the cabinets in the drawing-room. You will have only to sign them whenever you may like legally to be the owner. Is it necessary to add that you owe nothing to anyone for all that, and that you will remain absolute mistress of your actions? To-morrow I shall pass the day in that house, to assure myself that all there is in a fit state to receive you; and I shall never appear there again until you tell me yourself to come – or to remain there.

(Lionnette takes the key that Nourvady has laid upon the table while talking; rises, and goes to throw it out of the open window; passes before Nourvady in going to rejoin Godler and Trévelé.)

Nourvady (while she passes in front of him)

That window looks upon your garden, Countess, not upon the street. In a garden a key can be picked up again.

(He bows, and leaves her, to take his departure.)

Lionnette (in a low voice)

The insolent fellow!

Jane (entering, to Lionnette)

Master Raoul will not go to bed, Madam.

Lionnette

Very well; I am coming.

(She goes out by the door from which Jane has spoken to her.)

Trévelé (to Godler)

Again running away! that is too strong. This time, let us go too.

Nourvady

No, remain; I think you will be wanted here. Good bye. (He goes away.)

Scene III

GODLER, TRÉVELÉ

Trévelé (to Godler, while eating a cake)

I assure you that Nourvady is a personage apart. Listen now; let us eat all the cakes, drink all the lemonade, and during that time you can solve the enigma, for at length you ought to know what is going on in this house, you who have always been a friend of the Marchioness of Quansas. It is said even…

Godler (after looking around him)

In 1853.

Trévelé

You are decided?

Godler