Part 4 (2/2)

Mme. Mercadet Daughter, there can be nothing serious in this love of yours.

Julie It is a love to which both of us are willing to sacrifice everything.

Mercadet I suppose that your friend Adolphe thinks that we are rich?

Julie He has never spoken to me about money.

Mercadet Just so. I can quite understand it. (To Julie) Julie, write to him at once, telling him to come to me.

Julie (kissing him) Dear papa!

Mercadet And you must marry M. de la Brive. Instead of living on a fourth floor in a suburb, you will have a fine house in the Chaussee-d'Antin, and, if you are not the wife of a Minister, you perhaps will be the wife of a peer of France. I am sorry, my daughter, that I have no more to offer you. Remember, you can have no choice in the matter, for M.

Minard is going to give you up.

Julie Oh! he will never do that, papa. He will win your heart--

Mme. Mercadet My dear, suppose he loves her?

Mercadet He is deceiving her--

Julie I shouldn't mind being always deceived in that way.

(A bell is heard without.)

Mme. Mercadet Some one is ringing, and we have no one to open the door.

Mercadet That is all right. Let them ring.

Mme. Mercadet I am all the time thinking that G.o.deau may return.

Mercadet After eight years without any news, you are still expecting G.o.deau!

You seem to me like those old soldiers who are waiting for the return of Napoleon.

Mme. Mercadet They are ringing again.

Mercadet Julie, go and see who it is, and tell them that your mother and I have gone out. If any one is shameless enough to disbelieve a young girl-- it must be a creditor--let him come in.

(Exit Julie.)

Mme. Mercadet This love she speaks of, and which, at least on her side, is sincere, disturbs me greatly.

Mercadet You women are all too romantic.

Julie (returning) It is M. Pierquin, papa.

Mercadet A creditor and usurer--a vile and violent soul, who humors me because he thinks me a man of resources; a wild beast only half-tamed yet cowed by my audacity. If I showed fear he would devour me. (Going to the door.) Come in, Pierquin, come in.

<script>