One-Act Plays Part 10

ELOISE [_haughtily_]. The Nation is the People. You malign because you fear. The People is sacred!

LOUIS [_with increasing bitterness_]. Aren't you tired yet of the Palais Royal plat.i.tudes? I have been patient with your Mericourtisms for so long. Yes, always I was patient. Always there was time; there was danger, but there was a little time. [_He faces her, his voice becoming louder, his gestures more vehement._] But now the _Jeune Pierrette_ sails this hour, and if we are not out of here and on her deck when she leaves the quay, my head rolls in Samson's basket within the week, with Anne's and your own to follow! _Now_, I tell you, there is no more time, and _now_--

ELOISE [_suavely_]. Yes? Well? "Now?" [_He checks himself; his lifted hand falls to his side._]

LOUIS [_in a gentle voice_]. I am still patient. [_He looks into her eyes, makes her a low and formal obeisance, and drops dejectedly into the chair at the desk._]

ELOISE [_dangerously_]. Is the oration concluded?

LOUIS. Quite.

ELOISE [_suddenly volcanic_]. Then "_now_" you'll perhaps be "patient"

enough to explain why I shouldn't leave you instantly. Understand fully that I have come thus far with you and Anne solely to protect you in case you were suspected. "_Now_," my little man, you are safe: you have only to go on board your vessel. Why should I go with you?

Why do you insist on dragging me out of the country?

LOUIS [_wearily_]. Only to save your life; that is all.

ELOISE. My life! Tut! My life is safe with the People--my People!

[_She draws herself up magnificently._] The Nation would protect me!

I gave the people my whole fortune when they were starving. After that, who in France dare lay a finger upon the Citizeness Eloise d'Anville!

LOUIS. I have the idea sometimes, my cousin, that perhaps if you had not given them your property they would have taken it, anyway.

[_Dryly._] They did mine.

ELOISE [_agitated_]. I do not expect you to comprehend what I felt--what I feel! [_She lifts her arms longingly._] Oh, for a Man!--a Man who could understand me!

LOUIS [_sadly_]. That excludes me!

ELOISE. Shall I spell it?

LOUIS. You are right. So far from understanding you, I understand nothing. The age is too modern for me. I do not understand why this rabble is permitted to rule France; I do not even understand why it is permitted to live.

ELOISE [_with superiority_]. Because you belong to the cla.s.s that thought itself made of porcelain and the rest of the world clay. It is simple: the mud-ball breaks the vase.

LOUIS. You belong to the same cla.s.s, even to the same family.

ELOISE. You are wrong. One circ.u.mstance proves me no aristocrat.

LOUIS. What circ.u.mstance?

ELOISE. That I happened to be born with brains. I can account for it only by supposing some hushed-up ancestral scandal. [_Brusquely._] Do you understand that?

LOUIS. I overlook it. [_He writes again._]

ELOISE. Quibbling was always a habit of yours. [_Snapping at him irritably._] Oh, stop that writing! You can't do it, and you don't need it. You blame the people because they turn on you now, after you've whipped and beaten and ground them underfoot for centuries and centuries and--

LOUIS. Quite a career for a man of twenty-nine!

ELOISE. I have said that quibbling was--

LOUIS [_despondently_]. Perhaps it is. To return to my other deficiencies, I do not understand why this spy who followed us from Paris has not arrested me long before now. I do not understand why you hate me. I do not understand the world in general. And in particular I do not understand the art of forgery. [_He throws down his pen._]

ELOISE. You talk of "patience"! How often have I explained that you would not need pa.s.sports of any kind if you would let me throw off my incognito. If anyone questions you, it will be sufficient if I give my name. All France knows the Citizeness Eloise d'Anville. Do you suppose the officer on the quay would dare oppose--

LOUIS [_with a gesture of resignation_]. I know you think it.

ELOISE [_angrily_]. You tempt me not to prove it. But for Anne's sake--

LOUIS. Not for mine. That, at least, I understand. [_He rises._] My dear cousin, I am going to be very serious--

ELOISE. O heaven! [_She flings away from him._]

LOUIS [_plaintively_]. I shall not make another oration--

ELOISE. Make anything you choose. [_Drumming the floor with her foot._] What does it matter?

LOUIS. I have a presentiment--I ask you to listen--

ELOISE [_in her irritation almost screaming_]. How can I help but listen? And Anne, too! [_With a short laugh._] You know as well as I do that when that door is open everything you say in this room is heard in there. [_She points to the open doorway, where MADAME DE LASEYNE instantly makes her appearance, and after exchanging one fiery glance with ELOISE as swiftly withdraws, closing the door behind her with outraged emphasis._]

ELOISE [_breaking into a laugh_]. Forward, soldiers!

LOUIS [_reprovingly_]. Eloise!

ELOISE. Well, _open_ the door, then, if you want her to hear you make love to me! [_Coolly._] That's what you're going to do, isn't it?

LOUIS [_with imperfect self-control_]. I wish to ask you for the last time--

ELOISE [_flouting_]. There are so many last times!

LOUIS. To ask you if you are sure that you know your own heart. You cared for me once, and--

ELOISE [_as if this were news indeed_]. I did? Who under heaven ever told you that?

LOUIS [_flus.h.i.+ng_]. You allowed yourself to be betrothed to me, I believe.

ELOISE. "Allowed" is the word, precisely. I seem to recall changing all that the very day I became an orphan--and my own master!

[_Satirically polite._] Pray correct me if my memory errs. How long ago was it? Six years? Seven?

LOUIS [_with emotion_]. Eloise, Eloise, you did love me then! We were happy, both of us, so very happy--

ELOISE [_sourly_]. "Both!" My faith! But I must have been a brave little actress.

LOUIS. I do not believe it. You loved me. I--[_He hesitates._]

ELOISE. Do get on with what you have to say.

LOUIS [_in a low voice_]. I have many forebodings, Eloise, but the strongest--and for me the saddest--is that this is the last chance you will ever have to tell--to tell me--[_He falters again._]