|
Thanks to Sandy C.
This
Play was Purchased at Samuel French, Inc
excerpt from
... Act I
A fashionably furnished drawing-room. At center, double
folding doors. To the left,
a second pair of doors. Right, a window. On each side, additional doors - a double door on
the right, a single on the left, which is also farther downstage. Against the wall, right, a secretary desk; left, a small
table with a blotting-pad. Other furniture, chairs, mirrors, flowers, etc.
When the curtain rises, the stage is empty.
CLOTILDE, dressed to go out, with hat and gloves on, enters center, hurriedly, with a letter in her hand. She goes to the table
and conceals it beneath a writing case, at the same time drawing a bunch of keys from her pocket and going to the
secretary desk. At that point, LAFONT appears. She pretends to lock the desk. LAFONT puts down his hat, goes towards
her, upset and controlling himself with difficulty.
LAFONT. Open the desk and give me that letter.
CLOTILDE. No.
Pause.
LAFONT. Open the desk and give me that letter.
CLOTILDE. I shan't.
Longer pause.
LAFONT. Where have you been?
CLOTILDE. Ah! Something else, now.
LAFONT. Yes, it is something else. I'm asking you where you've been.
CLOTILDE. I shall tell you. I wish you could see yourself now, with the face you're making. You don't look handsome, my
dear. I like you better with your usual face. Heavens! What are we coming to if you lose your head over a wretched
little note that anybody at all may have written me.
LAFONT. Open the desk and give me that letter.
CLOTILDE. You shall have it ... But you can see that scenes like these, if often repeated, would soon alienate me from
you. I warn you, I won't stand a cross-examination every time I set foot outside the house.
LAFONT. Where have you been?
CLOTILDE. Try to be logical, at least. Is it likely that I'm leaving
someone and find a note from him when I get home?
LAFONT. Open the desk and give me that letter.
CLOTILDE. You're joking, aren't you?
LAFONT. Do I look like it?
CLOTILDE. YOU suspect me, then?
LAFONT. That's more likely.
He points to the desk.
CLOTILDE. YOU really want it? YOU demand it? YOU issue orders?
Very well.
Slowly, with affectation. she draws out of her pocket first a
handkerchief, next a small engagement book then the keys. She replaces the handkerchief and the
book and throws the keys across the room.
Open it yourself.
She turns her back. He stands motionless, undecided.
Go on, pick them up and open it. You've begun, go through
with it. Be a man at least.
He makes up his mind, goes to the keys, stoops down.
Be careful. Consider what you're going to do. If you touch those keys with so much as your
fingertips - your fingertips - I shan't be the one to regret it: you will.
LAFONT picks up the keys.
Take back your keys.
Pause; she takes off her hat and gloves.
CLOTILDE. It's getting worse, you know.
LAFONT. What is getting worse?
CLOTILDE. The disease is gaining.
LAFONT. What disease?
CLOTILDE. I had already noticed that you were watching my comings and goings and I laughed at the trouble you were
taking - so fruitlessly. I couldn't say anything, then. It was jealousy, but a pleasant sort of jealousy, which flatters the
vanity of a woman, which amuses her. Now you've come to that other, stupid, crude, brutal jealousy which wounds
us deeply and which we never forgive twice. Will you ever
do this again?
LAFONT. Clotilde ...
CLOTILDE. Will you?
LAFONT. No.
CLOTILDE. Good.
LAFONT. Clotilde ...
CLOTILDE. What is it, my dear?
LAFONT. You love me?
CLOTILDE. Less than yesterday.
LAFONT. You want me to be happy?
CLOTILDE. I think I have proved it often enough.
LAFONT. I'm worried about all these young men you meet, who hang about you.
CLOTILDE. You're silly to worry. I talk with this one and that, and once gone I don't even know which I was talking to.
LAFONT. You don't recall anyone you might have encouraged -
inadvertently - who might have felt entitled to address you?
CLOTILDE. No one.
LAFONT,
piteously. Open the desk and give me the letter.
CLOTILDE. Again! That letter is from my friend, Mme. Doyen
Beaulieu ...
LAFONT starts.
... the most virtuous of women - under her flighty appearances. I know what Pauline says in it and I shall tell you as soon
as you've stopped asking me.
LAFONT. Clotilde!
CLOTILDE. What now?
LAFONT. Do you feel sensible?
CLOTILDE. More than ever.
LAFONT. Your head is cool?
CLOTILDE. My head is cool - and my heart also.
LAFONT. Think of me, Clotilde, and think of yourself. Reflect
that a mistake is easily made and can never be mended. Don't give in to that taste for adventures which makes so
many victims nowadays. Resist it, Clotilde, resist it. As long as you stay faithful to me, you remain worthy and
respectable. If you should deceive me ...
She stops him by getting up and going towards the center
door.
CLOTILDE. Careful! Here comes my husband!
If
you would like to read more ... buy the Play !
Or you might be able to find it at your local library.
|
