The Stepmother, A Drama in Five Acts

It is impossible. Where are the letters?

Pauline

They are in my possession.

Gertrude

In your room?

Pauline

They are where you can never reach them.

Gertrude (aside) Madness with its wildest dreams spins through my brain! My fingers itch for murder. It is in such moments as this that men kill each other! How gladly would I kill her! My God! Do not forsake me! Leave me my reason! (Aloud) Wait a moment.

Pauline (aside) My thanks to you, Ferdinand! I see how much you love me; I have been able to pay back to her all the wrongs she did us a short time ago – and – she shall save us from all we feared!

Gertrude (aside) She must have them about her, – but how can I be sure of that? Ah! (Aloud) Pauline! If you have had those letters for long, you must have known that I was in love with Ferdinand. You can only lately have received them.

Pauline

They came into my hands this morning.

Gertrude

You have not read them all?

Pauline

Enough to find out that they would ruin you.

Gertrude Pauline, life is just beginning for you. (A knock is heard.) Ferdinand is the first man, young, well educated and distinguished, for he is distinguished, by whom you have been attracted; but there are many others in the world such as he is. Ferdinand has been in a certain sense under the same roof with you, and you have seen him every day; the first impulses of your heart have therefore directed you to him. I understand this, and it is quite natural. Had I been in your place I should doubtless have experienced the same feelings. But, my dear, you know not the ways either of the world or of society. And if, like so many other women, you have been deceiving yourself – for we women, ah, how often are we thus deceived! – you still can make another choice. But for me the deed has been done, I have no other choice to make. Ferdinand is all I have, for I have passed my thirtieth year, and I have sacrificed to him what I should have kept unsullied – the honor of an aged man. The field is clear for you, you may yet love some other man more ardently than you can love to-day – this is my experience. Pauline, child, give him up, and you will learn what a devoted slave you will have in me! You will have more than a mother, more than a friend, you will have the unstinted help of a soul that is lost! Oh! listen to me! (She kneels, and raises her hands to Pauline's corsage.) Behold me at your feet, acknowledging you my rival! Is this sufficient humiliation for me? Oh, if you only knew what this costs a woman to undergo! Relent! Relent, and save me. (A loud knocking is heard, she takes advantage of Pauline's confusion to feel for the letters.) Give back my life to me! (Aside) She has them!

Pauline

Oh, leave me, madame! Will you force me to call for some one?

(Pauline pushes Gertrude away, and proceeds to open the door.)

Gertrude (aside) I was not deceived, she has them about her; but I must not leave them with her one single hour.

SCENE EIGHTH

The same persons, the General and Vernon.

The General

You two, locked in together! Why did you call out, Pauline?

Vernon

How pale you are, my child! Let me feel your pulse.

The General (to Gertrude)

And you also seem to be very much excited.

Gertrude There was a joke between us and we were indulging in a laugh; weren't we, Pauline? You were laughing, my pet?

Pauline

Yes, papa. Dear mamma and I were in a gale of laughter.

Vernon (in a low voice to Pauline)

That's a pretty big lie!

The General

Didn't you hear us knocking?

Pauline

We heard quite plainly, papa; but we didn't know it was you.

The General (in a low voice to Vernon)

They seem to be leagued against me. (Aloud) But what was it all about?

Gertrude Dear husband, you always want to know everything! We were speaking for the moment about the tenants, about some acquaintance of ours. But let me go and ring for tea.

The General

But tell me all about it?

Gertrude Why this is sheer tyranny! To tell the truth, we locked ourselves in so that no one would disturb us. Is that plain enough?

Vernon

I should think it quite plain.

Gertrude (whispering to the General) I wished to worm her secrets out of your daughter, for it is evident that she has some secrets! And you come interrupting us, while I am working in your service – for Pauline is not my daughter; you arrive, as if you were charging a hostile squadron, and interrupt us, at the very moment I was going to learn something.

The General

Madame the Countess of Grandchamp, ever since the arrival of Godard —

Gertrude