The Princess of Bagdad: A Play In Three Acts
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas
The Princess of Bagdad: A Play In Three Acts
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
JOHN DE HUN.
NOURVADY.
GODLER.
RICHARD.
TRÉVELÉ.
A Commissary of Police.
LIONNETTE.
RAOUL DE HUN (six years).
A Lady's-Maid.
A Nurse.
ANTHONY.
A Footman.
A Secretary of the Commissary of Police.
Two Agents.
ACT I
A large and very elegant drawing-room, looking out on a garden. French window with balcony at the lower extremity to the right. To the left a conservatory. To the right a door opening into the apartment of Lionnette. To the left a door opening into the apartment of John.
Scene I
RICHARD, The Footman; afterwards JOHN and LIONNETTE
The Footman (to Richard, who waits sitting near a table, turning over some papers.)
The Count de Hun is here.
John enters; the Footman goes out
John
I am quite at your service, Master Richard, but I regret that you have inconvenienced yourself to come.
Richard
Not at all; I live about two steps from here, and every evening, after my dinner, I take a short walk. Only, I am in a frock-coat, and you have friends.
John
Men only, some club friends. Lionnette is with them in the conservatory.
Richard
Muster all the courage of which you are master.
John
We are ruined?
Richard
Yes.
John
Poor Lionnette!
Richard
Alas! It is a little her fault.
John
It is the fault of her mother, who reared her in luxury and without order. It is my fault, too, who was not as rich as my love; who not only never knew how to refuse her anything, but who did not even allow her time to wish for it; who told her to buy whatever she might wish for.
Richard
And who also gave her by power of attorney – serious imprudence! – the right of buying, selling, of disposing of her property, and, in consequence, of yours, as it seemed fit to her. You owe one million, a hundred and seven thousand, one hundred and twenty-seven francs, fifty-two centimes. When I say, you owe, that is a figure of speech; your wife owes. In that amount there are only thirty-eight thousand francs of your own personal debts, and for which personally you have to be responsible, as you were married under the system of "separation of property."
John
I authorised my wife to make debts, these debts then are mine. In other words, as she has no money, it is I who have to pay. What are my assets?
Richard
There is this house in which we are, which is worth eight hundred thousand francs when one does not want to sell it, but which would be worth from five hundred and fifty to five hundred and eighty thousand, the moment one is obliged to part with it; it is mortgaged for four hundred and fifty thousand francs… Then there are the horses, the furniture, the laces, the jewels…
John
Very few jewels. A year ago Lionnette sold every jewel she had, with that heedlessness, that lightness of disposition, and that want of consideration, which are the basis of her character, and which you so well know.
Richard
Ah! well, when you have sold all that you can possibly sell, there will remain about four hundred thousand francs.
John
Of capital?
Richard
Of debts.
John
And the entail of my property?
Richard
Ten thousand pounds income, inalienable, and all in your own power, fortunately.
John
Is it impossible to realize the capital?
Richard
Utterly impossible. Your uncle foresaw what has happened, and, with the knowledge of your habits and the wishes of your mother, he was anxious to preserve to you always a crust of bread. There remains your sister.
John (with a doubtful tone)
Yes, my sister!
Richard
When you were married seven years ago, you know under what conditions, you had nothing more than what remained to you of the fortune of your father, about eight or nine hundred thousand francs. You made some legal interpellations against your mother in order to marry Lionnette – I call your wife Lionnette quite unceremoniously, as I knew her from her birth, – and your mother, even in her dying hour, did not pardon you. She has looked well after your sister's interes