MADAME VAGRET. I hope to G.o.d you are right. If we fail this time, we're done for. We shall be left at Mauleon until he's pensioned off. What a misfortune it is that they can't put their hands on that wretched murderer! Such a beautiful crime too! We really had some reason for hoping for a death sentence this time! The first, remember!

BERTHA. Don't worry, motherkins. There's still a chance.

MADAME VAGRET. It's easy for you to talk. You see the newspapers are beginning to grumble. They reproach us, they say we are slack. My dear child, you don't realize--there 's a question of sending a detective down from Paris! It would be such a disgrace! And everything promised so well! You can't imagine how excited your father was when they waked him up to tell him that an old man of eighty-seven had been murdered in his district! He dressed himself in less than five minutes. He was very quiet about it. But he gripped my hands. "I think," he said, "I think we can count on my nomination this time!" [_She sighs_] And now everything is spoilt, and all through this ruffian who won't let them arrest him!

[_Another sigh_] What's the time?

BERTHA. It has just struck six.

MADAME VAGRET. Write out the _menus_. Don't forget. You must write only their t.i.tles--his Honor the President of a.s.sizes, his Honor the President of the High Court of Mauleon, and so forth. It's the preamble to the _menu_. Don't forget. Here is your father. Go and take a look round the kitchen and appear as if you were busy. [_Bertha leaves the room. Vagret enters in evening dress_]

SCENE II:--_Vagret, Madame Vagret._

MADAME VAGRET. Hasn't the Court risen yet?

VAGRET. When I left my subst.i.tute was just getting up to ask for the adjournment.

MADAME VAGRET. Nothing new?

VAGRET. About the murder? Nothing.

MADAME VAGRET. But your Monsieur Delorme--the examining magistrate--is he really looking for the murderer?

VAGRET. He's doing what he can.

MADAME VAGRET. Well, if I were in his place, it seems to me--Oh, they ought to have women for examining magistrates! [_Distractedly_] Is there nothing in the _Official Gazette_?

VAGRET [_dispirited and anxious_] Yes.

MADAME VAGRET. And you never told me. Anything that affects us?

VAGRET. No. Nanteuil has been appointed Advocate-General.

MADAME VAGRET. Nanteuil?

VAGRET. Yes.

MADAME VAGRET. Oh, that's too bad! Why, he was only an a.s.sistant at Luneville when you were subst.i.tute there!

VAGRET. Yes. But he has a cousin who's a deputy. You can't compete with men like that. [_A pause. Madame Vagret sits down and begins to cry_]

MADAME VAGRET. We haven't a chance.

VAGRET. My dearest! Come, come, you are wrong there.

MADAME VAGRET [_still tearful_] My poor darling! I know very well it isn't your fault; you do your best. Your only failing is that you are too scrupulous, and I am not the one to reproach you for that. But what can you expect? It's no use talking; everybody gets ahead of us. Soon you'll be the oldest District Attorney in France.

VAGRET. Come, come! Where's the Year Book?

MADAME VAGRET [_still in the same tone_] It's there--the dates, the length of service. See further on, dear.

VAGRET [_throwing the Year Book aside_] Don't cry like that! Remember I'm chosen to succeed Lefevre.

MADAME VAGRET. I know that.

VAGRET. I'm on the list for promotion.

MADAME VAGRET. So is everybody.

VAGRET. And I have the Attorney-General's definite promise--and the presiding judge's too.

MADAME VAGRET. It's the deputy's promise you ought to have.

VAGRET. What?

MADAME VAGRET. Yes, the deputy's. Up to now you've waited for promotion to come to you. My dear, you've got to run after it! If you don't do as the others do, you'll simply get left behind.

VAGRET. I am still an honest man.

MADAME VAGRET. It is because you are an honest man that you ought to try to get a better appointment. If the able and independent magistrates allow the others to pa.s.s them by, what will become of the magistracy?

VAGRET. There's some truth in what you say.

MADAME VAGRET. If, while remaining scrupulously honest, you can better our position by getting a deputy to push you, you are to blame if you don't do so. After all, what do they ask you to do? Merely that you should support the Ministry.

VAGRET. I can do that honestly. Its opinions are my own.

MADAME VAGRET. Then you'd better make haste--for a ministry doesn't last long! To support the Ministry is to support the Government--that is, the State--that is, Society. It's to do your duty.

VAGRET. You are ambitious.

MADAME VAGRET. No, my dear--but we must think of the future. If you knew the trouble I have to make both ends meet! We ought to get Bertha married. And the boys will cost us more and more as time goes on. And in our position we are bound to incur certain useless expenses which we could very well do without; but we have to keep up appearances; we have to "keep up our position." We want Georges to enter the Polytechnique, and that'll cost a lot of money. And Henri, if he's going to study law--you'd be able to help him on all the better if you held a better position.

VAGRET [_after a brief silence_] I haven't told you everything.

MADAME VAGRET. What is it?

VAGRET [_timidly_] Cortan has been appointed Councillor at Amiens.

MADAME VAGRET [_exasperated_] Cortan! That idiot of a Cortan?

VAGRET. Yes.

MADAME VAGRET. This is too much!

VAGRET. What can you expect? The new Keeper of the Seals is in his department. You can't fight against that!

MADAME VAGRET. There's always something--Cortan! Won't she be making a show of herself--Madame Cortan--who spells "indictment" i-n-d-i-t-e?

She'll be showing off her yellow hat! Don't you remember her famous yellow hat?