The Miser (L'Avare) Part 5

VAL. That is true; nothing more can be said. Without dowry. How can anyone resist such arguments?

HAR. (_aside, looking towards the garden_). Ah! I fancy I hear a dog barking. Is anyone after my money. (_To_ VALeRE) Stop here, I'll come back directly.

SCENE VIII.--eLISE, VALeRE.

ELI. Surely, Valere, you are not in earnest when you speak to him in that manner?

VAL. I do it that I may not vex him, and the better to secure my ends.

To resist him boldly would simply spoil everything. There are certain people who are only to be managed by indirect means, temperaments averse from all resistance, restive natures whom truth causes to rear, who always kick when we would lead them on the right road of reason, and who can only be led by a way opposed to that by which you wish them to go. Pretend to comply with his wishes; you are much more likely to succeed in the end, and ...

ELI. But this marriage, Valere?

VAL. We will find some pretext for breaking it off.

ELI. But what pretext can we find if it is to be concluded to-night?

VAL. You must ask to have it delayed, and must feign some illness or other.

ELI. But he will soon discover the truth if they call in the doctor.

VAL. Not a bit of it. Do you imagine that a doctor understands what he is about? Nonsense! Don't be afraid. Believe me, you may complain of any disease you please, the doctor will be at no loss to explain to you from what it proceeds.

SCENE IX--HARPAGON, eLISE, VALeRE.

HAR. (_alone, at the farther end of the stage_). It is nothing, thank heaven!

VAL. (_not seeing_ HARPAGON). In short, flight is the last resource we have left us to avoid all this; and if your love, dear elise, is as strong as ... (_Seeing_ HARPAGON) Yes, a daughter is bound to obey her father. She has no right to inquire what a husband offered to her is like, and when the most important question, "without dowry," presents itself, she should accept anybody that is given her.

HAR. Good; that was beautifully said!

VAL. I beg your pardon, Sir, if I carry it a little too far, and take upon myself to speak to her as I do.

HAR. Why, I am delighted, and I wish you to have her entirely under your control. (_To_ eLISE) Yes, you may run away as much as you like.

I give him all the authority over you that heaven has given me, and I will have you do all that he tells you.

VAL. After that, resist all my expostulations, if you can.

SCENE X.--HARPAGON, VALeRE.

VAL. I will follow her, Sir, if you will allow me, and will continue the lecture I was giving her.

HAR. Yes, do so; you will oblige me greatly.

VAL. She ought to be kept in with a tight hand.

HAR. Quite true, you must....

VAL. Do not be afraid; I believe I shall end by convincing her.

HAR. Do so, do so. I am going to take a short stroll in the town, and I will come back again presently.

VAL. (_going towards the door through which_ eLISE _left, and speaking as if it were to her_). Yes, money is more precious than anything else in the world, and you should thank heaven that you have so worthy a man for a father. He knows what life is. When a man offers to marry a girl without a dowry, we ought to look no farther. Everything is comprised in that, and "without dowry" compensates for want of beauty, youth, birth, honour, wisdom, and probity.

HAR. Ah! the honest fellow! he speaks like an oracle. Happy is he who can secure such a servant!

ACT II.

SCENE I.--CLeANTE, LA FLeCHE.

CLE. How now, you rascal! where have you been hiding? Did I not give you orders to...?

LA FL. Yes, Sir, and I came here resolved to wait for you without stirring, but your father, that most ungracious of men, drove me into the street in spite of myself, and I well nigh got a good drubbing into the bargain.

CLE. How is our affair progressing? Things are worse than ever for us, and since I left you, I have discovered that my own father is my rival.

LA FL. Your father in love?

CLE. It seems so; and I found it very difficult to hide from him what I felt at such a discovery.

LA FL. He meddling with love! What the deuce is he thinking of? Does he mean to set everybody at defiance? And is love made for people of his build?

CLE. It is to punish me for my sins that this pa.s.sion has entered his head.

LA FL. But why do you hide your love from him?

CLE. That he may not suspect anything, and to make it more easy for me to fall back, if need be, upon some device to prevent this marriage.

What answer did you receive?

LA FL. Indeed, Sir, those who borrow are much to be pitied, and we must put up with strange things when, like you, we are forced to pa.s.s through the hands of the usurers.

CLE. Then the affair won't come off?

LA FL. Excuse me; Mr. Simon, the broker who was recommended to us, is a very active and zealous fellow, and says he has left no stone unturned to help you. He a.s.sures me that your looks alone have won his heart.

CLE. Shall I have the fifteen thousand francs which I want?

LA FL. Yes, but under certain trifling conditions, which you must accept if you wish the bargain to be concluded.

CLE. Did you speak to the man who is to lend the money?