The Stepmother, A Drama in Five Acts

About.

Ramel

Have you anything more to tell me?

Ferdinand

Really, I think I have told you enough.

Ramel Very well! Go and get your dinner. Say nothing of my arrival, nor of my purpose here. Let them finish their dinner in peace. Now go at once.

(Exit Ferdinand.)

SCENE NINTH

Ramel (alone) Poor fellow! If all young people had studied the annals of the court, as I have done in seven years of a magistrate's work, they would come to the conclusion that marriage must be accepted as the sole romance which is possible in life. But if passion could control itself it would be virtue.

Curtain to First Act.

ACT II

SCENE FIRST

(Stage setting remains as in Act I.)

Ramel and Marguerite; later, Felix.

(Ramel is buried in his reflections, reclining on the sofa in such a way as to be almost out of sight. Marguerite brings in lights and cards. Night is approaching.)

Marguerite Four card tables – that will be enough, even though the cure, the mayor and his assistant come. (Felix lights the candles.) I'll wager anything that my poor Pauline will not be married this time. Dear child! If her late mother were to see that she was not queen of the house, she would weep in her coffin! I only remain here in order to comfort and to wait upon her.

Felix (aside) What is this old woman grumbling about? (Aloud) Whom are you complaining of now, Marguerite? I'll bet it is the mistress.

Marguerite

No, it is not; I am blaming the master.

Felix The General? You had better mind your own business. He is a saint, is that man.

Marguerite

Yes, a stone saint, for he is blind.

Felix

You had better say that he has been blinded.

Marguerite

You hit the nail on the head there.

Felix

The General has but one fault – he is jealous.

Marguerite

Yes, and obstinate, too.

Felix Yes, obstinate; it is the same thing. When once he suspects anything he comes down like a hammer. That was the way he laid two men lifeless at a blow. Between ourselves, there is only one way to treat a trooper of that sort; you must stuff him with flattery. And the mistress certainly does stuff him. Besides, she is clever enough to put blinders on him, such as they put on shying horses; he can see neither to the right nor to the left, and she says to him, "My dear, look straight ahead!" So she does!

Marguerite Ah! You think with me that a woman of thirty-two does not love a man of seventy without some object. She is scheming something.

Ramel (aside)

Oh, these servants! whom we pay to spy over us!

Felix What can be her scheme? She never leaves the house, she never sees anyone.

Marguerite She would skin a flint! She has taken away the keys from me – from me who always had the confidence of the former mistress; do you know why she did so?

Felix

I suppose she is saving up her pile.

Marguerite Yes, out of the fortune of Mlle. Pauline, and the profits of the factory. That is the reason why she puts off the marriage of the dear child as long as she can, for she has to give up her fortune when she marries her.

Felix

Yes, that's the law.

Marguerite I would forgive her everything, if only she made Mademoiselle happy; but I sometimes catch my pet in tears, and I ask her what is the matter, and she says nothing but "Good Marguerite!" (Exit Felix.) Let me see, have I done everything? Yes, here are the card tables – the candles – the cards – Ah! the sofa. (She catches sight of Ramel) Good Lord! A stranger!

Ramel

Don't be startled, Marguerite.

Marguerite

You must have heard all we said.

Ramel Don't be alarmed. My business is to keep secrets. I am the state's attorney.

Marguerite

Oh!

SCENE SECOND