Chapter 40

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 God, to think he believes that!

ETCHEPARE. You brought me the leavings of a swindler--the leavings of a swindler--and you stole, in my house, the place of an honest woman! Your lies have brought the curse of God on my family and it's you who are the cause of everything. The misfortune that's just befallen us, it's you who are the cause of it, I tell you! You're a pest, accursed, damned! Don't say another word to me! Don't speak to me!

YANETTA. Have you no pity, Pierre? Do you suppose I'm not suffering?

ETCHEPARE. If you are suffering you've deserved it! You haven't suffered enough yet. But what had I ever done to you that you should choose me for your victim? What did I ever do that I should have to bear what I'm suffering? You've made me a coward--you've lowered me almost to your own level--I ought to have been able to put you out of my mind and my heart already! And I can't! And I'm suffering torture, terrible torture--for I'm suffering through the love I once had for you. You--you were everything to me for ten years--my whole life. You've been everything, everything! And now the one hope left me is that I may forget you!

YANETTA. Oh, forgive me!

ETCHEPARE. Never! Never!

YANETTA. Don't say that word--only God has the right to say--never! I will come back to you. I'll be only like the head servant--no, the lowest if you like! I won't take my place in the home again until you tell me to.

ETCHEPARE. We have no house; we have no home. Nothing is left now! And I tell you again it's your fault--and it's because you used to be there, in the mother's place, my mother's place, you, a lie and a sacrilege--it's because of that that misfortune has overtaken us!

YANETTA. I swear to you I'd make you forget it all in time--I'd be so humble, so devoted, so repentant. And wherever you go I shall follow you. Pierre--think, your children still need me.

ETCHEPARE. My children! You shall never see them again! You shall never speak to them. I won't have you kiss them. I won't have you even touch them!

YANETTA [_changing her tone_] Ah, no, not that, not that! The children! No, you are wrong there! You can deprive me of everything--you can put every imaginable shame upon me--you can force me to beg my bread--I'll do it willingly. You needn't look at me--you needn't speak to me except to abuse me--you can do anything, anything you like. But my children, my children--they are mine, the fruit of my body--they are still part of me--they are blood of my blood and bone of my bone forever. You might cut off one of my arms, and my arm would be a dead thing, and no part of myself any more, but you can't stop my children being my children.

ETCHEPARE. You have made yourself unworthy to keep them.

YANETTA. Unworthy! What has unworthiness to do with it? Have I ever failed in my duty to them? Have I been a bad mother? Answer me! I haven't, have I? Well then, if I haven't been a bad mother, my rights over them are as great as ever they were! Unworthy! I might be a thousand times more guilty--more unworthy, as you call it--but neither you, nor the law, nor the priests, nor God himself would have the right to take them from me. I have been to blame as a wife, it's possible, but as a mother I've nothing to reproach myself with. Well then--well then--no one can steal them from me! And you, who could think of such a thing, you're a wretch! Yes, it's to avenge yourself that you want to part me from them! You're just a coward! Just a man! There's no fatherhood left in your heart--you don't think of them. Yes--you are lying--I tell you, you are lying! When you say I'm not worthy to bring them up you're lying! It's only a saying--only words. You know it isn't true--you know I've nourished them, cared for them, loved them, consoled them, and I have taught them to say their prayers every night, and I would go on doing so. You know that no other woman will ever fill my place--but that makes no difference to you. You forget them--you want to punish me, so you want to take them from me. I'm justified in saying to you that it's an act of cowardly wickedness and a vile piece of vengeance! Ah! The children! You want to gamble with them now. No--to take them away from me--think, Pierre, think; it isn't possible, what you are saying!

ETCHEPARE. You are right; I am revenging myself! What you think an impossibility is done already. My mother has taken the children and gone away with them.

YANETTA. I shall find them again.

ETCHEPARE. America is a big country.

YANETTA. I shall find them again!

ETCHEPARE. Then I shall tell them why I have taken them away from you!

YANETTA. Never! Never that! I'll obey you, but swear--

_The recorder enters._

THE RECORDER. Etchepare, come and sign your discharge. You will be released at once.

YANETTA. Wait a moment, Monsieur, wait a moment. [_To Etchepare_] I agree to separation if I must. I will disappear--you will never hear of me again. But in return for this wicked sacrifice swear solemnly that you will never tell them.

ETCHEPARE. I swear.

YANETTA. You swear never to tell them anything that may lessen their affection for me?

ETCHEPARE. I swear.

YANETTA. Promise me too--I beg you, Pierre--in the name of our happiness and my misery--promise to keep me fresh in their memory--let them pray for me, won't you?

ETCHEPARE. I swear it.

YANETTA. Then go--my life is done with.

ETCHEPARE. Good-bye.

_He goes out with the recorder. At the door the latter meets Mouzon._

THE RECORDER [_to Etchepare_] They are coming to show you the way out.

THE RECORDER [_to Mouzon_] The woman Etchepare is there.

MOUZON. Ah, she's there. Monsieur Vagret has been speaking of her. Well, I withdraw my complaint; I ask nothing better than that she shall be set at liberty. Now that I am a Councillor I don't want to be coming back from Pau every week for the examination. Proceed with the necessary formalities.