This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in print or other media may be made without the express consent of the Copyright Holder. The Copyright Holder is especially concerned about performance rights in any media on stage, cinema, or television, or audio or any other media, including readings for which an entrance fee or the like is charge. Permissions should be addressed to: Frank Morlock, 6006 Greenbelt Rd, #312, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA or frankmorlock@msn.com. Other works by this author may be found at http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130
Etext by Dagny
++++++++++++++++++++++++
CHARACTERS:
JACQUES DAMOUR
SAGNARD
BERRU
FELICIE
PAULINE
FRANCOISE
++++++++++++++++++++++++
A dining room, separated from a butcher shop by a glass of rough squares. In the glass partition: a small ticket window, under the window a drawer. A door not far from the ticket window by the partition to the butcher shop. A door to the right leading to the street, flanked by a window. Door to the left. A buffet, table, mahogany chairs.
The action takes place at Batignolles.
(Sagnard is seated at the table perusing a newspaper. Pauline and Francoise are ready to leave.)
FELICIE: Well! It's agreed, right, Francoise? You are going to take a tour of the square, not very long, and if the little girl is hungry, you will buy her a cake at the bakery.
FRANCOISE: Yes, Madame.
FELICIE: (to Pauline) As for you, Pauline, I forbid you to play with the kids you don't know. You understand me?
SAGNARD: Heavens! There are still amnestied person returning yesterday. (perusing the paragraphs of the paper) Three hundred. They endured a storm, on departing Noumea, and their boat almost sank to the bottom. (releasing the paper) Now that wouldn't have been lucky, would it? Hey? Felicie, the poor devils, at the moment of seeing their native land again?
FELICIE: Indeed.
PAULINE: (offering her cheek to her mother) Goodbye, mama. (Felicie kisses her)
PAULINE: (near the door) Goodbye, papa.
SAGNARD: (who has resumed his reading) What! She doesn't kiss her daddy before going out?
PAULINE: Yes, indeed. This is funny. (running to him)
SAGNARD: About time. (taking her in his arms and kissing her) There! There you go, Miss.
PAULINE: (low to Sagnard) Give me two sous.
SAGNARD: (low, also, laughing and ceasing to swing her around) Two sous! What for?
PAULINE: (still low) To buy a ball.
SAGNARD: (setting her on the ground) To buy a ball? Hum! (he pretends to hide from Felicie, fumbles in his pocket, takes out two sous and gives them to her) My word, since your mother isn't looking—there!
PAULINE: Thanks, papa. Are you coming, Francoise? (she leaves with Francoise)
FELICIE: (by the door) Watch out for the traffic.
SAGNARD: (yawning and stretching) I am going to go up and take a nap. (yawns again) Because when you've spent a night like me, the whole night at the abattoir—
FELICIE: The fact is, you must be pretty tired, my poor man! You work too much, much too much.
SAGNARD: Bah! a couple hours on the pillow and it won't seem that way any more.
FELICIE: You say that, but I repeat, you are working too much.
SAGNARD: And as for me, if I want it, that my wife will have pretty dresses to wear when she goes out! (Felicie shakes her head) And yes, I want our butcher shop to be the most appetising and the most frequented in the neighborhood! Besides, doesn't the business reward us? Listen, the day when we retire from business to move to the country, won't we need a carriage? (Felicie again shakes her head) How are we going to see the child without it, when she marries in our neighborhood? Well, I'll earn our carriage. And then, you know, if one doesn't catch the eye of the young men—good night—nobody.
FELICIE: I am happy to have known you, go! For sure, there's no better man on the earth. (tenderly) Tell me, you don't regret anything?
SAGNARD: What's this song you are singing me?
FELICIE: I had nothing. You just took me from my misery to be cashier- lady. Have I been all you hoped for in marrying me?
SAGNARD: Now there are some questions! Go on, I knew quite well what I was doing, because I had judged you: I saw you so honest, heart and head firm. Today, I could leave and the shop wouldn't run badly. In the whole neighborhood, there's not a woman more understanding than you, or a man happier than me. (at a gesture from Felicie) You even doubt it a little, look—
FELICIE: I love you, it's true! More than I loved anyone. God knows if I still wanted to try marriage!
SAGNARD: Yes, you had bad luck with your first husband.
FELICIE: Oh! if he hadn't been bad. I cannot say that he had been bad, even after he returned so furious, under the Commune, after having been beaten with those from Versailles. And then, he's dead, isn't he? It's already more than eight years—drowned, trying to escape down there. Heavens! Just thinking about it, I get the shivers. I know quite well he would have been able to occupy himself a bit more with me, with his child, and less with his politics, with his miserable politics. Never mind! Sometimes I think of him despite myself.
SAGNARD: Because of the papers, I understand. They are not talking of anything else but amnesties. It's my fault, too, and I shouldn't have read the news to you just now.
FELICIE: And what's happening with these wretches, every day! To think he could be one of them?
SAGNARD: You wish it?
FELICIE: Me? No, no, surely not! I am not an ingrate; I haven't forgotten what you've done for me! And our Pauline? Poor little cat! And then, I love you. You want to make me repeat it, huh? (hugging him) My brave man, go! O—o—oh! You didn't put on your tie today? Are you always going to forget, every morning, to put on your tie?
SAGNARD: (radiant) It's you who make me lose my head. Heavens! I have no wish to sleep now.
FELICIE: That won't prevent you from sleeping all the same. Look, an hour, just one hour to get rid of your exhaustion a little. An hour! That's not much!
SAGNARD: You promise to come wake me up in an hour?
FELICIE: I promise.
SAGNARD: (after having kissed her) Then I'm going up. (stopping a moment before leaving) All the same! all those papers with their amnesties are starting to get on my nerves! I won't buy any more. (to Felicie) Till later. (he leaves)
(Felicie prowls around for a moment opening and shutting drawers. Berru enters by the door which gives on the little street. He's a bit drunk.)
BERRU: Hello, Madame Sagnard.
FELICIE: Berru!
BERRU: Himself, Madame Sagnard, my beautiful Madame Sagnard. Hey! it's a long time that we haven't seen each other? Almost eight years.
FELICIE: Berru!
BERRU: Eh! yes, Berru! that funny old Berru! A friend, what! The pal of your first husband, Jacques Damour! (a silence) Have I really aged, changed so much, that I astonish you like this? (silence) And me, I was coming like an old comrade, like in the days of that poor Jacques. (another silence) Then you've still got it in for me? (gesture by Felicie) Hey! What! Damour in the New World, you were, indeed, free not to have it in for me! One flirts with someone, they don't suit; no reason to quarrel. That would work, much better! That wasn't so much the worse! Didn't I have to go!
FELICIE: (harshly) How can I help you?
BERRU: I was passing by. Then I said to myself: Let's go in to see Madame Sagnard.
FELICIE: Well! You've seen me. Goodnight!
BERRU: You are hard, Madame Sagnard. Can't one come ask for news of one's friends? And your daughter, Louise, what's become of her?
FELICIE: (troubled) Louise, Louise— You didn't come for her did you? Then what? What is it you want from me?
BERRU: Your husband of today, Citizen Sagnard, is he here?
FELICIE: Yes, he's asleep. You want to speak to him?
BERRU: No, only to you. What a hurry you are in, slow down! (casting a glance at the furniture) Ah! indeed, ah! indeed, say there. By Jove! Sonofabitch! it is rich your little hovel! Mahogany, like it was raining! A real dining room of a swell! It's more dashing at your place than it used to be. You remember the Rue Envierges at Menilmontant? As for me, I can still see you there. There were three rooms. Yours, where you slept with Damour, that of your brother-in-law, Eugene, of that poor Eugene. (he removes his cap) Executed by firing squad! And a dining room where they put bench vices to work—not counting the kitchen and Louise's little room. We got drunk in that lodging! You didn't have fine furniture at that period, but it was great fun all the same. Wasn't it, Madame Sagnard? (a silence) As for me, my dream would have been to see you installed as you are here, but with my old buddy Damour.
FELICIE: Is this finished? Are you going to leave me in peace? How did you dare to present yourself in my home? You, for indeed, I know what I know, perhaps! It was you who disturbed my first household. (Berru gestures in protest) Yes, it was you who debauched Damour; it's you who put a rifle in his hands. (new protest from Berru) If he hadn't kept bad company—
BERRU: He only kept company with me.
FELICIE: That sufficed.
BERRU: Keep the insults to yourself, old pal. Ah! good God, now that's how they judge you, and it will always be like that. Still, I spared him many stupidities! If he had listened to me he would never have been sent to Noumea. Do you hear me? Nev-er! (Felicie shrugs) As for me, I kept out of it.
FELICIE: You never fought. You were in the commissariat.
BERRU: What's that prove? (in a voice almost deep) They don't have rifles in the commissariat? (looking around him) What I demolished! (aloud) Only after, I was sharp.
FELICIE: Very sharp.
BERRU: For all that, you haven't been sharp? You didn't get yourself out of it? Once Damour disappeared, didn't you marry one of the richest of the rich, the biggest butcher in Batignolles? So what do you call that? Sacrificing yourself? Ho! Wow!
FELICIE: I did what I wished. And that's enough of this, isn't it? I knew you, and I repeat, that it was you who led Damour, who was the best of men, astray. Oh! it's not that you were evil, but you were a weak man and a drunkard, we were sure to see you show up when we had a good bite to eat and full litres of wine. Yes, yes, you smelled the cooking from a distance.
BERRU: There's nothing evil in that.
FELICIE: During the siege, you were hiding at our place to eat our white bread. Well, my brave man, you are deceiving yourself, if you think that's going to start over again here. No more guzzling, do me the pleasure of taking the door.
BERRU: Fine! Fine! we will see about all that soon! Really, you are wrong to be so proud. Do you believe, my beautiful Madame Sagnard, that if Damour returns he won't strangle you, you and the whole crew?
FELICIE: Damour is dead.
BERRU: A conjecture, that he isn't dead. That he may be waiting for me on the boulevard two steps from here.
FELICIE: (interrupting him) Is that all you came here to tell me?
BERRU: Perhaps!
(Knocking on the window of the butcher shop, Felicie goes to open it.)
A MAN'S VOICE: Two pounds of the filet at two and a quarter.
(Berru goes to the street door, opens it and signals Damour, who enters and stands behind him.)
FELICIE: Are things going well, Miss Marie?
A WOMAN'S VOICE: Very well, Madame, and the child?
FELICIE: The child is out walking. I thank you.
(Felicie returns the money, shuts the window, and, hand in her drawer, removes the money for a moment.)
FELICIE: (turning to Berru) What! You are still here? You haven't finished boring me?
BERRU: Me, yes. (effacing himself) But, wait! Here's a comrade who wishes to speak with you.
FELICIE: (not recognizing Damour who is miserably dressed with a long beard) You have something to ask of me? (a silence) What can I do for your service, sir? (stifling a scream and releasing into the drawer the fistful of money which she had kept) You! What! It's you! It's you.
(Damour keeps silent.)
BERRU: Yes, he's been looking for you for the last two weeks. Then, he met me and I led him here. Friends are friends.
FELICIE: (getting control of herself, bit by bit) Look, Jacques, what have you come here to ask of me? (another silence) I remarried, it's true. But, it's not my fault, you know it. I thought you were dead, and you did nothing to get me out of the error.
DAMOUR: Yes, I wrote you.
FELICIE: You wrote me?
DAMOUR That's what I'm telling you.
FELICIE: I swear that I never received your letters. You know me, you know that I've never lied. Still, you were dead. And, hold it! I have the death certificate here in a drawer.
(Felicie goes to a desk, opens it, and extracts a paper which she gives to Damour who starts reading it with stupid air.)
DAMOUR: (stammering) The certificate—the certificate.
FELICIE: So, I saw myself completely alone, I gave in to the offer of a man who wanted to take me out of my misery and torments. That's the extent of my fault. It's not a crime, is it? And you have nothing to reproach me with. I allowed myself to be tempted by the idea of being happy.
DAMOUR: You hadn't been before, with me?
FELICIE: Not always Jacques— Remember.
DAMOUR: I wrote you. As for me, that's all I see.
FELICIE: I changed my address from the neighborhood. They hunted me everywhere. Where were you the last time you wrote me?
DAMOUR: In America— Down there, in Noumea, I had no news of you, I was no longer living, and I escaped with three comrades who were drowned. Then, they thought they recognized me in one of them. I learned that from a newspaper.
BERRU: A famous piece of luck you had to escape from there, my old friend!
DAMOUR: Not so famous! (he looks at Felicie broken-hearted)
FELICIE: What do you want? I didn't know anything.
DAMOUR: I worked in the gold mines, to bring you back a fortune. I thought only of you. Which almost enslaved me, good breeding ! One moment I had almost forty thousand francs in an old handkerchief. Then, all this went. They robbed me. Then I came back. Not daring to debark in France I went to Belgium, I worked in the coal mines at Mons, underground, and I hardly made wherewithal to keep from croaking of hunger. You hadn't answered, me, too, I thought you were dead. One night, in a cabaret, I heard tell that an amnesty had had been voted and that all the members of the Commune could return to Paris. And I don't know what went through my head, I came down with a fever of coming back. I no longer saw you dead, I imagined Louise grown. I thought that you were waiting for me, that I was going to find you in the Rue des Envierges, that a table would be waiting with a bouquet in the middle to celebrate me. (in a strangled voice) But don't believe it! Not often! Misfortune upon misfortune! It almost killed me, dammit!
FELICIE: My poor Jacques!
DAMOUR: In Paris, I sought you everywhere. But what's the good of telling you all I suffered here! The employers don't want me. A Communard! it never failed! Besides, they told me that I was too old. I was going to throw myself in the water when I met Berru.
BERRU: Ah! That was a real surprise. But you were dead! That's what I told him. You know, old boy, if I was expecting this!
DAMOUR: (to Felicie) Finally, here I am. (a silence) Where is my daughter?
FELICIE: Your daughter?
DAMOUR: Yes. Where is Louise?
FELICIE: (lowering her head) She is dead.
DAMOUR: (with a cry of sadness) Dead— My God!
(Pauline and Francoise enter. Pauline rushes to her mother and leaps on her neck.)
PAULINE: It's us, little mother. Francoise said it was time to come home. Oh! If you knew, there's sand, and there are ducks in the water.
FELICIE: (uneasy) That's fine, leave me. Francoise, take her. It's stupid to return so soon.
FRANCOISE: But, Madame—
FELICIE: Take her back, go!
(Pauline and Francoise leave.)
BERRU: The little Sagnard—huh? The seed of brats grows quickly!
DAMOUR: (banging his fist on the table) That's not all! I've come to take you back!
FELICIE: (trembling) Sit down and let's talk. Making an uproar won't advance things. So, you are coming to find me?
DAMOUR: Yes, you are going to follow me, and right away. Right, Berru? I am your husband, the only good one. Oh, I know my rights. Isn't that right, Berru, it's my lawful right? Come on, put on a bonnet, be sweet, if you don't want the world to know our business. (Felicie doesn't answer) You refuse? I understand. You are accustomed now to play the lady at the cashier's desk; and as for me, I don't have a beautiful shop, nor a drawer full of money that you can play with at your ease. Then, there's the little girl, just now, who you seem to me to care more for than Louise. If they've let the daughter run off, they make fun of the father! But that's all the same to me. I intend for you to come, and indeed you will come or I will go to the police and I will return with the cops. That's my right.
FELICIE: Listen, Jacques.
DAMOUR: It's my right— Isn't it, Berru?
BERRU: (sententiously) Yes, it's your right; but we have to see; as for me, I am for doing things without getting into a passion. (to Felicie) Unfortunately, the lady is rushed. It's hard to wait in her position. Ah! Madame, if you knew! Not a radish, he's starving.
FELICIE: Pardon me, Jacques. (a silence) What's done is done. But I don't want you to be unhappy. Let me come to your aid.
(Violent gesture from Damour.)
BERRU: (excitedly) Quite, certainly. (to Damour) The house here is full enough, so that your wife won't be leaving the womb empty. (to Felicie) Why don't you give him a little something to keep the pot boiling, so he can make a little bouillon.
FELICIE: Oh! as much as he would like, Mr. Berru.
BERRU: (to Damour) Look, would you really accept a gift. A meal and some cutlets.
DAMOUR: Thanks, I don't eat bread like that. (coming and looking Felicie in the eyes) It's you, alone, that I want, and I will have you.
FELICIE: (recoiling) My God!
DAMOUR: (getting carried away) Damnation! It's not enough to have suffered what I have suffered, it's still necessary for me to be scorned! Do you want me to break everything here! Let's go! Tell the truth; if Louise is dead, it's because you deserted her. (he shakes her violently) Ah! If I was sure of it.
FELICIE: (without defending herself) Oh! Jacques! Jacques!
BERRU: Calm down! You are going to ruin your position.
DAMOUR: Leave me alone. (to Felicie) Do you intend to follow me, yes or no?
FELICIE: Why I cannot—I cannot.
DAMOUR: You cannot? (he grasps a chair and raises it) Heavens! I'm going to hurt you.
BERRU: (disarming Damour) Hey! Nothing stupid.
DAMOUR: I'd better go, I'm going to kill her!
BERRU: (to Felicie) That's it, I'll take him away for a minute.
DAMOUR: (to Felicie) Yes, I'm going away. But you won't lose anything by waiting. I will return and watch out below, you, the kid and the whole camp. Expect me, you will see!
SAGNARD: (entering excitedly) What's the matter then?
(Felicie, petrified, doesn't budge.)
DAMOUR: (furious, raising his fist) What's wrong is—
BERRU: (to Sagnard) Mrs. Sagnard will tell you about it, sir. That will be best. (dragging Damour) Let's go, come.
(Berru and Damour leave by the street door.)
SAGNARD: What's the matter with him? Who are these two men?
FELICIE: (stammering) It's—it's Berru.
SAGNARD: Who's that, Berru?
(Knocking on the cashier's cage, Felicie opens.)
FELICIE: How much to receive?
A VOICE: Seven fifty, Madame.
(Felicie takes the money, shuts the cage, then turns, all pale and trembling.)
SAGNARD: Look, Felicie, what's wrong with you? Why are you trembling? Who were those two men?
FELICIE: He's come back.
SAGNARD: Who?
FELICIE: My husband.
SAGNARD: What husband?
FELICIE: Damour.
SAGNARD: The one who was dead?
FELICIE: (bursting into tears) He's come back, I tell you. And he wants to take me away.
SAGNARD: To take you away? Why he's mad.
FELICIE: (on Sagnard's breast) He is not mad. I told him all that one can say to a man; but he wasn't listening, he's out of his head, he's talking about massacring all of us.
SAGNARD: (after a silence) Would you like to know what causes me the most pain in all this? It's that you are in the process of blaming yourself. He's come back, well! so what? Do you think I will let him take you away? Ah! no, for goodness sake! My God! There's nothing funny about it, I understand that very well, but it will end by working itself out all the same! Won't everything work out? I will speak to him.
FELICIE: You want to talk to him?
SAGNARD: Heavens! By Jove! He's not the one to frighten me! I've seen others.
FELICIE: Now they are going to fight! My God! How miserable I am!
SAGNARD: Perhaps he won't devour me.
FELICIE: (still weeping, at the table, head in her hands) My God! My God!
SAGNARD: Can one make oneself so upset like that? Yes, it's possible. Look, Felicie—
(Enter little Pauline. She stops, speechless, looks at her father, and he gestures to her to go to Felicie.)
PAULINE: You are weeping, mama? Why are you weeping? Who has caused you pain?
FELICIE: Nobody, my poor little cat.
PAULINE: Then don't cry any more, mama. Don't cry any more, I tell you. Here! give me your handkerchief, so I can dry your eyes. I am nice, huh? (drying her mother's eyes)
SAGNARD: (standing near his wife) Is it over?
PAULINE: First of all, mama, if you cry again, I am going to cry, too.
FELICIE: It's over. (she hugs her)
(Enter Damour and Berru.)
FELICIE: (noticing Damour) Lord! He's here again!
(Damour comes forward. Sagnard quickly places himself between him and Felicie, who runs off dragging Pauline. A silence during which the two men look at each other.)
SAGNARD: Then, it's you?
DAMOUR: Yes, it's me.
SAGNARD: Very well. Let's talk it over.
DAMOUR: (hesitating) It's—it's not you with whom I wish to speak, it's to Felicie.
SAGNARD: Look, my comrade, let's have an explanation straight away. What the devil! We have nothing to reproach one another for. Why devour each other, when it's nobody's fault?
DAMOUR: (in a heavy voice) I haven't got it in for you; leave me alone, get out of here. It's to Felicie that I wish to speak.
SAGNARD: (calmly) As to that, no, you won't speak to her. I have no wish that you make her ill. We can discuss things without her. Besides, if you are reasonable, everything will be fine. Since you appear to love her still, look at your position, consider, and act for her good.
DAMOUR: (excitedly) Shut up! Don't meddle with this or it's going to turn out badly. (he advances on Sagnard)
BERRU: (interposing) Look, Damour. You promised me.
DAMOUR: Leave me alone, okay! What are you afraid of? You're an idiot!
SAGNARD: Calm down, comrade, calm down! Look, as for me, am I enraged? If you are enraged, you don't know what you are doing. (a silence) Listen, if I call Felicie, promise me to be good, because she is very sensitive, you know that as well as I do. Neither of us wants to kill her, right? You will behave properly?
DAMOUR (in a dolorous and profound tone) If I'd come to behave badly, I would have begun by strangling you, you with all your talk.
SAGNARD: Then I am going to call Felicie. Oh! as for me, I am very fair; I understand that you wish to discuss the thing with her. It's your right. (knocking on the door of her room) Felicie! Felicie! (silence) Felicie, come on. (impatiently after a new silence) What you are doing is stupid. He's promised to be reasonable.
(Felicie enters, eyes red.)
BERRU: (aside) Here's a sudden downpour!
(Sagnard stands at the window, raises the curtain with a finger and affects to look outside.)
DAMOUR: Listen, Felicie, you know that I have never been bad. That you can say. Well, today's not the day I will begin to be so. First of all, it's true, I wanted to slaughter all of you here. Then, suddenly, as I left, I asked myself, how that would help me. I prefer to let the mistress choose. We will do what you wish. Yes, since the courts can do nothing for us with their justice, it's you who will decide which of us pleases you better. Answer. With whom do you want to be, Felicie?
FELICIE: (in a strangled voice) My God!
DAMOUR: Yes, with whom? (silence by Felicie) That's fine, I understand. It's with him you want to be. Returning, I know how this upsets everything. And I don't wish you ill for it, I am fair after all. As for me, I am finished, I have nothing in the end, you no longer love me; as for him, he will make you happy, without even counting the little girl I saw. (Felicie weeps) You are wrong to cry, these are not reproaches. Things have turned out this way, that's all. And then, I want to tell you that you can sleep peacefully. Now that you have chosen, I won't bother you any more. It's over; you won't hear any talk of me any more. Goodbye!
(He heads toward the door. Sagnard stops him.)
SAGNARD: Ah! you are a brave man, for goodness sake! It's not possible for you to leave this way. You are going to dine with us.
DAMOUR: No, thanks.
BERRU: What, you refuse?
SAGNARD: At least we will drink a glass. You will, indeed, accept a glass of wine with us, what the devil?
DAMOUR: (eyes on Felicie who begs him with a look) Yes, all the same.
BERRU: (gaily) Let's go to it!
SAGNARD: (enchanted) Quick, Felicie, some glasses. We don't need the maid. Four glasses. You must drink also. (To Damour) Ah, comrade, you are really nice to accept, you don't know the pleasure you are doing me; because, for me, I like good hearts, and you, you are a good heart, I'll answer for that.
BERRU: For sure he's a good heart. (poking Damour in the stomach) Hey! laugh now, my old rabbit!
(Damour smiles sadly. Felicie pours a drink. A short silence.)
SAGNARD: Here's to you!
(Sagnard extends his glass. Felicie extends hers.)
DAMOUR: (clinking with Felicie) Here's to you.
(They drink in silence.)
BERRU: Famous, that wine!
PAULINE'S VOICE: (outside, tapping on the door) Mama! Mama!
FELICIE: Right away.
DAMOUR: (after having put his glass on the table) That's it! Goodbye, everybody!
(He leaves.)
CURTAIN.