Chapter 9

Mauleon._

_The curtain rises, revealing Madame Vagret in evening dress; she is altering the position of the chairs to her own satisfaction. Enter Bertha, also in evening dress, a newspaper in her hand._

BERTHA. Here's the local paper, the _Journal_. I sent the _Official Gazette_ to father; he has just come home from the Court. He's dressing.

MADAME VAGRET. Is the sitting over?

BERTHA. No, not yet.

MADAME VAGRET [_taking the newspaper_] Are they still discussing the case?

BERTHA. As usual.

MADAME VAGRET. One doesn't need to search long. There's a big head-line at the top of the page: "The Irissary Murder." They're attacking your father now! [_She reads_] "Monsieur Vagret, our District Attorney." [_She continues to read to herself_] And there are sub-headings too: "The murderer still at large." As if that was our fault! "Justice asleep!" Justice asleep indeed! How can they say such things when your father hasn't closed his eyes for a fortnight! Can they complain that he hasn't done his duty? Or that Monsieur Delorme, the examining magistrate, isn't doing his? He has made himself quite ill, poor man! Only the day before yesterday he had a tramp arrested because his movements were ever so little suspicious! So you see! No! I tell you these journalists are crazy!

BERTHA. It seems they are going to have an article in the Basque paper too.

MADAME VAGRET. The _Eskual Herria_!

BERTHA. So the chemist told me.

MADAME VAGRET. I don't care a sou for that. The Attorney-General doesn't read it.

BERTHA. On the contrary, father was saying the other day that the Attorney-General has translations sent him of every article dealing with the magistracy.

MADAME VAGRET. The Attorney-General has translations sent him! Oh well, never mind. Anyhow, let's change the subject! How many shall we be this evening? You've got the list?

BERTHA [_She takes the list from the over-mantel_] The President of Assizes--the President of the Court--

MADAME VAGRET. Yes. Yes, that's all right; nine in all, isn't it?

BERTHA. Nine.

MADAME VAGRET. Nine! To have nine people coming to dinner, and not to know the exact hour at which they'll arrive! That's what's so trying about these dinners we have to give at the end of a session--in honor of the President of Assizes. One dines when the Court rises. When the Court rises! Well, we'll await the good pleasure of these gentlemen! [_She sighs_] Well, child!

BERTHA. Mother?

MADAME VAGRET. Are you still anxious to marry a magistrate?

BERTHA [_with conviction_] I am not!

MADAME VAGRET. But you were two years ago!

BERTHA. I am not now!

MADAME VAGRET. Look at us! There's your father. Procurator of the Republic--Public Prosecutor--State Attorney; in a court of the third class, it's true, because he's not a wire-puller, because he hasn't played the political game. And yet he's a valuable man--no one can deny that. Since he's been District Attorney he has secured three sentences of penal servitude for life! And in a country like this, where crimes are so frightfully rare! That's pretty good, don't you think? Of course, I know he'll have had three acquittals in the session that ends to-day. Granted. But that was mere bad luck. And for protecting society as he does--what do they pay him? Have you any idea?

BERTHA. Yes, I know; you've often told me, mother.

MADAME VAGRET. And I'll tell you again. Counting the stoppages for the pension, he gets altogether, and for everything, three hundred and ninety-five francs and eighty-three centimes a month. And then we are obliged to give a dinner for nine persons in honor of the President of Assizes, a Councillor! Well, at all events, I suppose everything is ready? Let's see. My _Revue des Deux Mondes_--is it there? Yes. And my armchair--is that in the right place? [_She sits in it_] Yes. [_As though receiving a guest_] Pray be seated, Monsieur le President. I hope that's right. And Monsieur Dufour, who was an ordinary magistrate when your father was the same, when we were living at Castelnaudery, he's now President of the second class at Douai, and he was only at Brest before he was promoted!

BERTHA. Really!

MADAME VAGRET [_searching for a book on the over-mantel_] Look in the Year Book.

BERTHA. I'll take your word for it.

MADAME VAGRET. You may! The Judicial Year Book. I know it by heart!

BERTHA. But then father may be appointed Councillor any day now.

MADAME VAGRET. He's been waiting a long time for his appointment as Councillor.

BERTHA. But it's as good as settled now. He was promised the first vacancy, and Monsieur Lefevre has just died.

MADAME VAGRET. I hope to God you are right. If we fail this time, we're done for. We shall be left at Mauleon until he's pensioned off. What a misfortune it is that they can't put their hands on that wretched murderer! Such a beautiful crime too! We really had some reason for hoping for a death sentence this time! The first, remember!

BERTHA. Don't worry, motherkins. There's still a chance.

MADAME VAGRET. It's easy for you to talk. You see the newspapers are beginning to grumble. They reproach us, they say we are slack. My dear child, you don't realize--there 's a question of sending a detective down from Paris! It would be such a disgrace! And everything promised so well! You can't imagine how excited your father was when they waked him up to tell him that an old man of eighty-seven had been murdered in his district! He dressed himself in less than five minutes. He was very quiet about it. But he gripped my hands. "I think," he said, "I think we can count on my nomination this time!" [_She sighs_] And now everything is spoilt, and all through this ruffian who won't let them arrest him! [_Another sigh_] What's the time?

BERTHA. It has just struck six.

MADAME VAGRET. Write out the _menus_. Don't forget. You must write only their titles--his Honor the President of Assizes, his Honor the President of the High Court of Mauleon, and so forth. It's the preamble to the _menu_. Don't forget. Here is your father. Go and take a look round the kitchen and appear as if you were busy. [_Bertha leaves the room. Vagret enters in evening dress_]