Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 92

There's one matter done with.

ETCHEPARE. It's finished as far as justice is concerned, Monsieur; it isn't finished for me. I'm acquitted, it's true, but my life is made miserable.

THE RECORDER. You didn't know--

ETCHEPARE. That's it.

THE RECORDER. It's a long time ago--you'll forgive her.

ETCHEPARE. Things like that, Monsieur--a Basque never forgives them.

It's as though a thunderbolt had struck me to the heart. And all the misfortune that's befallen us--it's she who is the cause--G.o.d has avenged himself. Everything's over.

THE RECORDER [_after a pause_] I am sorry for you with all my heart.

ETCHEPARE. Thank you, Monsieur. [_A pause_] Since you are so kind, Monsieur, will you allow my mother, who's there in the corridor, waiting for me, to come and speak to me?

THE RECORDER. I'll send her in to you. Good-bye.

ETCHEPARE. Good-bye.

SCENE III:--_The recorder goes out. Enter Etchepare's mother._

ETCHEPARE [_pressing his mother's head against his breast_] Poor old mother--how the misery of these three months has changed you!

THE MOTHER. My poor boy, how you must have suffered!

ETCHEPARE. That woman!

THE MOTHER. Yes, they've just been telling me.

ETCHEPARE. For ten years I've lived with that thief--that wretched woman! How she lied! Ah! When I heard that judge say to her, "You were convicted of theft and complicity with your lover," and when, before all those people, she owned to it--I tell you, mummy, I thought the skies were falling on my head--and when she admitted she'd been that man's mistress--I don't know just what happened--nor which I would have killed soonest--the judge who said such things so calmly or her who admitted them with her back turned to me. And then I was on the point of confessing myself guilty--I, an innocent man--in order not to learn any more--to get away--but I thought of you and the children! [_A long pause_] Come! We've got to make up our minds what we're going to do. You left them at home?

THE MOTHER. No. I had to send them to our cousin at Bayonne. We've no longer got a home--we've nothing--we are ruined. Besides, I've got a horror of this place now. The women edge away and make signs to one another when I meet them, and in the church they leave me all alone in the middle of an empty s.p.a.ce. Already--I had to take the children away from school.

ETCHEPARE. My G.o.d!

THE MOTHER. No one would speak to them. One day Georges picked a quarrel with the biggest, and they fought, and as Georges got the better of it, the other, to revenge himself, called him the son of a gallows-bird.

ETCHEPARE. And Georges?

THE MOTHER. He came home crying and wouldn't go out of doors. It was then that I sent them away to Bayonne.

ETCHEPARE. That's what we'll do. Go away. We'll go and fetch them.

To-morrow or to-night I shall be with you again. There are emigration companies there--boats to America--they'll send all four of us--they'll give us credit for the voyage on account of the children.

THE MOTHER. And when they ask for their mother--

ETCHEPARE [_after a pause_] You'll tell them she's dead.

SCENE IV:--_Yanetta is shown in._

YANETTA [_to someone outside_] Very good, Monsieur. [_The door is closed_]

THE MOTHER [_without looking at Yanetta_] Then I'll go.

ETCHEPARE [_the same_] Yes. I shall see you again to-night or down there to-morrow.

THE MOTHER. Very well.

ETCHEPARE. Directly you get there you'll go and find out about the day and hour.

THE MOTHER. Very well.

ETCHEPARE. Till to-morrow then.

THE MOTHER. To-morrow. [_She goes out without glancing at Yanetta_]

YANETTA [_takes a few steps towards her husband, falls on her knees, and clasps her hands. In a low voice_] Forgive me!

ETCHEPARE. Never!

YANETTA. Don't say never!

ETCHEPARE. Was the judge lying?

YANETTA. No--he wasn't lying.

ETCHEPARE. You wretched thing!

YANETTA. Yes, I am a wretched thing! Forgive me!

ETCHEPARE. Kill you rather! I could kill you!

YANETTA. Yes, yes! But forgive me!

ETCHEPARE. You're just a loose woman--a loose woman from Paris, with no honor, no shame, no honesty even!

YANETTA. Yes! Insult me--strike me!

ETCHEPARE. For ten years you have been lying to me!

YANETTA. Oh, how I wished I could have told you everything! Oh, how many times I began that dreadful confession! I never had courage enough. I was always afraid of your anger, Pierre, and of the pain I should cause you--I saw you were so happy!

ETCHEPARE. You came from up there, fresh from your vice, fresh from prison, and you chose me to be your gull.

YANETTA. My G.o.d, to think he believes that!