DURAND. Prove it? With two witnesses or--a policeman! [To Annette.]

Annette, my child, will you tell me the truth?

ANNETTE. I didn't see anything.

DURAND. That's a proper answer. For one should never accuse one's sister. How like your mother you are today, Annette!

ANNETTE. Don't you say anything about mother! She should be living such a day as this!

[Adele comes in with a gla.s.s of milk, which she puts on table.]

ADeLE [To Durand]. There's your milk. What happened to the bread?

DURAND. Nothing, my children. It will continue to come as it always has up to the present.

THeReSE [Grabs the gla.s.s of milk from her father]. You shall not have anything, you who throw away money, so that your children are compelled to starve.

ADeLE. Did he throw away money, the wretch? He should have been put in the lunatic asylum the time mother said he was ripe for it. See, here's another bill that came by way of the kitchen.

[Durand takes the bill and starts as he looks at it. Pours a gla.s.s of water and drinks. Sits down and lights his briar pipe.]

ANNETTE. But he can afford to smoke tobacco.

DURAND [Tired and submissively]. Dear children, this tobacco didn't cost me any more than that water, for it was given to me six months ago.

Don't vex yourselves needlessly.

THeReSE [Takes matches away]. Well, at least you sha'n't waste the matches.

DURAND. If you knew, Therese, how many matches I have wasted on you when I used to get up nights to see if you had thrown off the bedclothes! If you knew, Annette, how many times I have secretly given you water when you cried from thirst, because your mother believed that it was harmful for children to drink!

THeReSE. Well, all that was so long ago that I can't bother about it.

For that matter, it was only your duty, as you have said yourself.

DURAND. It was, and I fulfilled my duty and a little more too.

ADeLE. Well, continue to do so, or no one knows what will become of us.

Three young girls left homeless and friendless, without anything to live on! Do you know what want can drive one to?

DURAND. That's what I said ten years ago, but no one would heed me; and twenty years ago I predicted that this moment would come, and I haven't been able to prevent its coming. I have been sitting like a lone brakeman on an express train, seeing it go toward an abyss, but I haven't, been able to get to the engine valves to stop it.

THeReSE. And now you want thanks for landing in the abyss with us.

DURAND. No, my child, I only ask that you be a little less unkind to me.

You have cream fur the cat, but you begrudge milk to your father, who has not eaten for--so long.

THeReSE. Oh, it's you, then, who has begrudged milk for my cat!

DURAND. Yes, it's I.

ANNETTE. And perhaps it is he who has eaten the rats' bait, too.

DURAND. It is he.

ADeLE. Such a pig!

THeReSE [Laughing]. Think if it had been poisoned!

DURAND. Alas, if only it had been, you mean!

THeReSE. Yes, you surely wouldn't have minded that, you who have so often talked about shooting yourself--but have never done it!

DURAND. Why didn't you shoot me? That's a direct reproach. Do you know why I haven't done it? To keep you from going into the lake, my dear children.--Say something else unkind now. It's like hearing music--tunes that I recognize--from the good old times--

ADeLE. Stop such useless talk now and do something. Do something.

THeReSE. Do you know what the consequences may be if you leave us in this shape?

DURAND. You will go and prost.i.tute yourselves. That's what your mother always said she'd do when she had spent the housekeeping money on lottery tickets.

ADeLE. Silence! Not a word about our dear, beloved mother!

DURAND [Half humming to himself].

In this house a candle burns, When it burns out the goal he earns, The goal once won, the storm will come With a great crash. Yes! No!

[It has begun to blow outside and grown cloudy. Durand rises quickly and says to Adele] Put out the fire in the stove. The wind storm is coming.

ADeLE [Looking Durand in the eyes]. No, the wind is not coming.

DURAND. Put out the fire. If it catches fire here, we'll get nothing from the insurance. Put out the fire, I say, put it out.

ADeLE. I don't understand you.

DURAND [Looks in her eyes, taking her hand]. Just obey me, do as I say. [Adele goes into kitchen, leaving the door open. To Therese and Annette.] Go up and shut the windows, children, and look after the draughts. But come and give me a kiss first, for I am going away to get money for you.

THeReSE. Can you get money?

DURAND. I have a life insurance that I think I am going to realize on.

THeReSE. How much can you get for it?

DURAND. Six hundred francs if I sell it, and five thousand if I die.

[Therese concerned.] Now, tell me, my child,--we mustn't be needlessly cruel,--tell me, Therese, are you so attached to Antonio that you would be quite unhappy if you didn't get him?

THeReSE. Oh, yes!

DURAND. Then you must marry him if he really loves you. But you mustn't be unkind to him, for then you'll be unhappy. Good-bye, my dear beloved child. [Takes her in his arms and kisses her cheeks.]

THeReSE. But you mustn't die, father, you mustn't.