Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 3

FeLIAT. Excuse me! I really didn't recognize you for the moment.

THeReSE [_laughing_] Ah, my dress. Startling, isn't it?

MADAME GUeRET [_with meaning_] Startling is the right word.

RENe [_appearing at the back, disappearing again immediately, and calling_] The bell! And you, on the stage, Mademoiselle Therese!

THeReSE. I'm coming. [_She rings_] Here I am!

_She goes out._

MADAME GUeRET [_with a sigh_] And I had it let down!

FeLIAT. What?

MADAME GUeRET. Her dress. [_To her husband_] What I see most clearly in all this is that she must stay with us.

_Rene comes fussing in._

RENe. Where's the queen? Where's Madame Nerisse?

MADAME GUeRET. I've not seen her.

RENe. But goodness gracious--! [_He goes to the door on the left and calls_] Madame Nerisse!

MADAME NeRISSE [_from outside_] Yes, yes, I'm ready.

_Madame Nerisse comes in. She is about forty, flighty, and a little affected._

RENe. I wanted to warn you that Ulric will be on your right, and if he plays the fool--

MADAME NeRISSE. Very well. Is it time?

RENe. Yes, come. [_To Madame Gueret_] You won't forget the trumpets?

MADAME GUeRET. No, no. All the same, you'd better help me.

RENe. I will, I will.

_He goes out with Madame Nerisse._

FeLIAT. You know, if she wants one, she'll find a husband at Evreux.

MADAME GUeRET. Without a penny!

FeLIAT. Without a penny! She made a sensation at the ball at the sous-prefecture. She's extremely pretty.

MADAME GUeRET. She's young.

FeLIAT. Monsieur Gambard sounded me about her.

MADAME GUeRET. Monsieur Gambard! The Monsieur Gambard who has the house with the big garden?

FeLIAT. Yes.

MADAME GUeRET. But he's very rich.

FeLIAT. He's forty-nine.

MADAME GUeRET. She'll have to take what she can get now.

FeLIAT. And I think that Monsieur Beaudoin----

GUeRET. But he's almost a cripple!

MADAME GUeRET. She wouldn't do so well in Paris.

GUeRET. She wouldn't look at either of them.

FeLIAT. We must try and make her see reason.

_Rene enters busily. Lucienne follows him. Feliat is standing across the guichet through which Barberine is to speak. Rene pulls him away without ceremony._

RENe. Excuse me, Uncle; don't stand there before the little window.

FeLIAT. Beg pardon. I didn't know.

RENe. I haven't a moment.

FeLIAT. I've never seen you so busy. At your office they say you're a lazy dog.

MADAME GUeRET. Probably Rene has more taste for the stage than for business.

RENe [_laughing_] Rather! [_To Lucienne_] Now, it's time. Come. Lift it.

Not yet! There! _Now!_

LUCIENNE [_speaking through the guichet_] "If you want food and drink, you must do like those old women you despise--you must spin."

RENe. Capital!

LUCIENNE [_to Feliat_] Please forgive me, Monsieur, I've not had time to speak to you.

FeLIAT. Why, it's Mademoiselle Lucienne, Therese's friend, who came and stayed in the holidays! Fancy my not recognizing you!

LUCIENNE. It's my dress. I _do_ like playing this part. I have to say that lovely bit--you know--the bit that describes the day of the ideal wife. [_She recites, sentimentally_] "I rise and go to prayers, to the farmyard, to the kitchen. I prepare your meal; I go with you to church; I read a page or two; I sew a while; and then I fall asleep happy upon your breast."

FeLIAT. That's good, oh, that's very good! _Barberine_--now, who wrote that?