Comedy of Marriage and Other Tales

M. DE SALLUS [laughs gently]

Take care! One would think you were jealous.

MME. DE SALLUS

I? Jealous? For whom do you take me? [The butler announces.] Madame is served. [Hands a letter to M. de Sallus.]

MME. DE SALLUS [to Jacques de Randol]

Your arm, M. Jacques de Randol.

JACQUES DE RANDOL [in a low tone]

How I love you!

MME. DE SALLUS [indifferently]

Just a little, I suppose.

JACQUES DE RANDOL

Ah, no; with all my soul!

M. DE SALLUS [after reading his letter]

Come along, then, let us go to dinner. I have to go out this evening.

Curtain

MUSOTTE

OR A CRITICAL SITUATION A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

JEAN MARTINEL

Nephew of M. Martinel, a painter; not yet thirty years of age, but already well known and the recipient of various honors.

LEON DE PETITPRÉ

Brother to Gilberts Martinel, a young lawyer about thirty years of age.

M. MARTINEL

An old gunmaker of Havre, aged fifty-five.

M. DE PETITPRÉ

An old magistrate, officer of the Legion of Honor. Aged sixty.

DR. PELLERIN

A fashionable physician of about thirty-five.

MME. DE RONCHARD

Sister to M. de Petitpré, about fifty-five years of age.

HENRIETTE LÉVÊQUE

Nicknamed Musotte; a little model, formerly Jean Martinel’s mistress. Twenty-two years of age.

MME. FLACHE

A midwife. Formerly a ballet-dancer at the Opera. About thirty-five years of age.

GILBERTE MARTINEL

Daughter of M. and Mme. de Petitpré, married in the morning to Jean Martinel. About twenty years old.

LISE BABIN

A nurse, about twenty-six.

SERVANTS

Time: Paris of to-day. The first and third acts take place in M. de Petitpré’s drawing-room.

The second act takes place in Musotte’s bedchamber.

ACT I

SCENE I

(A richly yet classically furnished drawing-room in M. de Petitpré’s house. A table, C.; sofas, R.; chairs and armchairs, L. Wide doors, C., opening upon a terrace or gallery. Doors R. and L. of C. Lighted lamps.)

Enter from R. M. de Petitpré, Monsieur Martinel, Madame de Ronchard, Léon de Petitpré, Jean and Gilberte. Gilberte is in her bridal attire, but without wreath and veil.

MME. DE RONCHARD [after bowing to M. Martinel, whose arm she relinquishes, seats herself R.]

Gilberte, Gilberte!

GILBERTE [leaves Jean’s arm]

What is it, Auntie?

MME. DE RONCHARD