Woman on Her Own, False Gods and The Red Robe Part 80

YANETTA [_as before_] No--

MOUZON. You are pale--you are trembling--you are feeling faint. Give her a chair, Benoit. [_The recorder obeys_] Pull yourself together!

YANETTA. My G.o.d, you know that?

MOUZON. Here is the report which has been sent me. "The woman Yanetta X--was brought to Paris at the age of sixteen as companion or lady's maid by Monsieur and Madame So-and-so, having been employed by them in that capacity at Saint-Jean-de-Luz." Is that correct?

YANETTA. Yes.

MOUZON. Here is some more. "Illicit relations were before long formed between the girl Yanetta and the son of the family, who was twenty-three years of age. Two years later the lovers fled, taking with them eight thousand francs which the young man had stolen from his father. On the information of the latter the girl Yanetta was arrested and condemned to one month's imprisonment for receiving stolen property. After serving her sentence she disappeared. It is believed that she returned to her own district." Are you the person mentioned here?

YANETTA. Yes. My G.o.d, I thought that was all so long ago--so completely forgotten. It is all true, Monsieur, but for ten years now I've given every minute of my life to making up for it, trying to redeem myself.

Just now I answered you insolently; I beg your pardon. You have not only my life in your hands now, but my husband's, and the honor of my children.

MOUZON. Does your husband know of this?

YANETTA. No, Monsieur. Oh, you aren't going to tell him! I beg you on my knees! It would be wicked, I tell you, wicked! Listen, Monsieur--listen.

I came back to the country; I hid myself; I would rather have died; I didn't want to stay in Paris--you understand why--and then in a little while I lost mother. Etchepare was in love with me, and he bothered me to marry him. I refused--I had the courage to go on refusing for three years. Then--I was so lonely, so miserable, and he was so unhappy, that in the end I gave way. I ought to have told him everything. I wanted to, but I couldn't. It would have hurt him too much. For he's a good man, Monsieur, I swear he is. [_Mouzon makes a gesture_] Yes, I know, sometimes when he's been drinking, he's violent. I was going to tell you about that. I don't want to tell you any more untruths. But it's very seldom he's violent now. [_Weeping_] Oh, don't let him know, Monsieur, don't let him know. He'd go away--he'd leave me--he'd take my children from me. [_She gives a despairing cry_] Ah, he'd take my children from me! I don't know what to say to you--but it isn't possible--you can't tell him--now you know all the harm it would do. You won't? Of course I was guilty--but I didn't understand--I didn't know. I wasn't seventeen, sir, when I went to Paris. My master and mistress had a son; he forced me almost--and I loved him--and then he wanted to take me away because his parents wanted to send him away by himself. I did what he asked me.

That money--I didn't know he had stolen it--I swear I didn't know--

MOUZON. That's all right; control yourself.

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.

MOUZON. We'll put that on one side for the moment.

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.

MOUZON. Now your husband--

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur.

MOUZON [_with great sincerity_] You will have need of all your courage, my poor woman. Your husband is guilty.

YANETTA. It's impossible! It's impossible!

MOUZON [_with great sincerity_] He has not confessed it, but he is on the point of doing so. I myself know what happened that night after he left your house--witnesses have told me.

YANETTA. No! No! My G.o.d, my G.o.d! Witnesses? What witnesses? It isn't true!

MOUZON. Well, then, don't be so obstinate! In your own interest, don't be so stubborn! Shall I tell you what will be the end of it? You will ruin your husband! If you insist on contradicting the evidence, that he pa.s.sed the night away from the house, you'll ruin him, I tell you. On the other hand, if you will only tell me the truth, then if he is not the murderer, he will tell us what he did do and who his companions were.

YANETTA. He hadn't any.

MOUZON. Then he went out alone?

YANETTA. Yes.

MOUZON. At ten o'clock?

YANETTA. At ten.

MOUZON. He returned alone at five in the morning?

YANETTA. Yes, all alone.

MOUZON. But perhaps you are thinking of some other night. It was really the night of Ascension Day when he went out alone?

YANETTA. Yes.

MOUZON. Benoit, have you got that written down?

RECORDER. Yes, your wors.h.i.+p.

MOUZON. Madame, I know how painful this must be to you, but I beg you to listen to me with the greatest attention. Your husband was pressed for money, was he not?

YANETTA. No.

MOUZON. Yes.

YANETTA. I tell you no.

MOUZON. Here is the proof. Three months ago he borrowed eight hundred francs from a cattle-dealer of Mauleon.

YANETTA. He never told me about it.

MOUZON. Moreover, he owed a considerable sum to Goyetche.

YANETTA. I've never heard of that either.

MOUZON. Here is an acknowledgment written by your husband. It is in his handwriting?

YANETTA. Yes, but I didn't know--

MOUZON. You didn't know of the existence of this debt? That tends to confirm what I know already--your husband went to Irissary.

YANETTA. No, sir; he tells me everything he does.

MOUZON. But you see very well that he doesn't, since you didn't know of the existence of this debt. He went to Irissary. Don't you believe me?

YANETTA. Yes, Monsieur, but he didn't kill a man for money; it's a lie, a lie, a lie!

MOUZON. It's a lie! Now how am I to know that? Your husband begins by denying everything, blindly, and then he takes up two methods of defence in succession. You yourself begin by a piece of false evidence. All this, I tell you again, will do for the man.

YANETTA. I don't know about that, but what I do tell you again is that he didn't kill a man for money.

MOUZON. Then what did he kill him for? Perhaps after all he isn't as guilty as I supposed just now. Perhaps he acted without premeditation.

This is what might have happened. Etchepare, a little the worse for drink, goes to Goyetche in order to ask him once more to wait for the payment of this debt. There is a dispute between the two men; old Goyetche was still a strong man; there may have been provocation on his part, and there may have been a struggle, with the tragic result you know of. In that case your husband's position is entirely different--he is no longer a criminal premeditating a crime; and the sentence p.r.o.nounced against him may be quite a light one. So you see, my good woman, how greatly it is in your interest to obtain a complete confession from him. If he persists in his denials, I am afraid the jury will be extremely severe upon him. There is no doubt that he killed Goyetche; but under what conditions did he kill him? Everything depends on that. By persistently trying to pa.s.s for a totally innocent man he risks being thought more guilty than he is. Do you understand?