The Stepmother, A Drama in Five Acts Part 18

Pauline But now you are more than thirty--and I am still young. Moreover, he hates you, he abhors you! He has told me so, and he wishes to have nothing to do with a woman capable of the black treachery with which you have acted towards my father.

Gertrude In the eyes of Ferdinand, my love will serve as my vindication.

Pauline He shares the feelings which I have for you; he despises you, madame.

Gertrude Do you really believe it? Well, if it is so, my dear, I have one more reason for the position I take, for if he refuses to become my husband, to gratify his love, Pauline, you will force me to marry him for the sake of satisfying my revenge. When he came to this house, was he not aware that I was here?

Pauline You probably caught him by some such snare as you have just set for us, and into which both of us have fallen.

Gertrude Now, my child, a single word more will put an end to everything between us. Have you not said a hundred times, a thousand times, in moments when you were all feeling, all soul, that you would make the greatest sacrifices for Ferdinand?

Pauline Yes, madame.

Gertrude You said you would leave your father, would flee from France; you would give your life, your honor, your salvation for Ferdinand?

Pauline Yes, and if there is anything else that I can offer besides myself--this world and heaven!

Gertrude Let me tell you, then, that all that you have wished to do, I have done! It is enough therefore to a.s.sure you that nothing, not even death itself, can arrest my course.

Pauline In saying this, you give me the right to defend myself before my father. (Aside) O Ferdinand! Our love, (Gertrude takes a seat on the sofa during the soliloquy of Pauline) as she has said, is greater than life. (To Gertrude) Madame, you must repair all the evil that you have done to me; the sole difficulties which lie in the way of my marriage with Ferdinand, you must overcome. Yes, you who have complete control over my father, you must make him forego his hatred of the son of General Marcandal.

Gertrude And do you really mean that?

Pauline Yes, madame.

Gertrude And what means do you possess formidable enough to compel me to do so?

Pauline Are we not carrying on a warfare of savages?

Gertrude Say rather, of women, which is even more terrible! Savages torment the body alone; while we direct our arrows against the heart, the self-love, the pride, the soul of those whom we attack in the very midst of their happiness.

Pauline That is truly said. It is the whole woman-nature that I attack.

Therefore, my dear and truly honored stepmother, you must eliminate by to-morrow, and not later, all the obstacles that stand between me and Ferdinand; or you may be sure my father shall learn from me the whole course of your conduct, both before and after your marriage.

Gertrude Ah! That is the way you are going to do it! Poor child! He will never believe you.

Pauline Oh, I know the domination you exercise over my father; but I have proofs.

Gertrude Proofs! Proofs!

Pauline I went to Ferdinand's house--I am very inquisitive--and I found there your letters, madame; I took from among them those which would convince even the blindness of my father, for they will prove to him--

Gertrude What will they prove?

Pauline Everything!

Gertrude But this will be, unhappy child, both theft and murder! For think of his age.

Pauline And have not you accomplished the murder of my happiness? Have you not forced me to deny, both to my father and to Ferdinand, my love, my glory, my life?

Gertrude (aside) This is a mere trick; she knows nothing. (Aloud) This is a clever stratagem, but I never wrote a single line. What you say is not true.

It is impossible. Where are the letters?

Pauline They are in my possession.

Gertrude In your room?

Pauline They are where you can never reach them.

Gertrude (aside) Madness with its wildest dreams spins through my brain! My fingers itch for murder. It is in such moments as this that men kill each other! How gladly would I kill her! My G.o.d! Do not forsake me! Leave me my reason! (Aloud) Wait a moment.

Pauline (aside) My thanks to you, Ferdinand! I see how much you love me; I have been able to pay back to her all the wrongs she did us a short time ago--and--she shall save us from all we feared!

Gertrude (aside) She must have them about her,--but how can I be sure of that? Ah!

(Aloud) Pauline! If you have had those letters for long, you must have known that I was in love with Ferdinand. You can only lately have received them.

Pauline They came into my hands this morning.

Gertrude You have not read them all?

Pauline Enough to find out that they would ruin you.

Gertrude Pauline, life is just beginning for you. (A knock is heard.) Ferdinand is the first man, young, well educated and distinguished, for he is distinguished, by whom you have been attracted; but there are many others in the world such as he is. Ferdinand has been in a certain sense under the same roof with you, and you have seen him every day; the first impulses of your heart have therefore directed you to him. I understand this, and it is quite natural. Had I been in your place I should doubtless have experienced the same feelings. But, my dear, you know not the ways either of the world or of society. And if, like so many other women, you have been deceiving yourself--for we women, ah, how often are we thus deceived!--you still can make another choice.

But for me the deed has been done, I have no other choice to make.

Ferdinand is all I have, for I have pa.s.sed my thirtieth year, and I have sacrificed to him what I should have kept unsullied--the honor of an aged man. The field is clear for you, you may yet love some other man more ardently than you can love to-day--this is my experience.

Pauline, child, give him up, and you will learn what a devoted slave you will have in me! You will have more than a mother, more than a friend, you will have the unstinted help of a soul that is lost! Oh!

listen to me! (She kneels, and raises her hands to Pauline's corsage.) Behold me at your feet, acknowledging you my rival! Is this sufficient humiliation for me? Oh, if you only knew what this costs a woman to undergo! Relent! Relent, and save me. (A loud knocking is heard, she takes advantage of Pauline's confusion to feel for the letters.) Give back my life to me! (Aside) She has them!

Pauline Oh, leave me, madame! Will you force me to call for some one?

(Pauline pushes Gertrude away, and proceeds to open the door.)

Gertrude (aside) I was not deceived, she has them about her; but I must not leave them with her one single hour.

SCENE EIGHTH

The same persons, the General and Vernon.

The General You two, locked in together! Why did you call out, Pauline?

Vernon How pale you are, my child! Let me feel your pulse.

The General (to Gertrude) And you also seem to be very much excited.

Gertrude There was a joke between us and we were indulging in a laugh; weren't we, Pauline? You were laughing, my pet?